Allison Moorer

Biography

Allison Moorer (born June 21, 1972) is an American country singer-songwriter. She signed with MCA Nashville in 1997 and made her debut on the U.S. Billboard Country Chart with the release of her debut single, "A Soft Place to Fall", which she co-wrote with Gwil Owen. The song was featured in Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1999. Moorer performed at the Oscars ceremony the same year. She has made ten albums and her songs have been recorded by Trisha Yearwood, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Steve Earle, and Hayes Carll.

Early life

Moorer was born in Mobile, Alabama on June 21, 1972. She was raised in Frankville, Alabama, and later Monroeville, Alabama, after the deaths of her parents. Growing up, Moorer and her sister also lived in Jackson, Alabama at various times. Music was an important part of the family: her father was a local bandleader and her mother a harmony-singing teacher, and as children, she and her older sister Shelby Lynne sometimes joined their parents on-stage to sing along. In 1986, when Moorer was 14 and her older sister Shelby (now Shelby Lynne) was 17, he shot and killed his wife before taking his own life. Moorer graduated from the University of South Alabama in Mobile in June 1993 and then moved to Nashville, Tennessee, without collecting her diploma, to join her sister, who lived there and had already released three albums. Moorer began singing backgrounds in Lynne's band full-time and toured extensively with her.

Career

In June 1996, Moorer took part in a tribute to her songwriter friend, the late Walter Hyatt, singing his "Tell Me Baby" at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. Nashville agent Bobby Cudd was in attendance and subsequently introduced her to producer and MCA Nashville president Tony Brown. After a few meetings, Brown asked her to cut some demos for the label. Two tracks—"Pardon Me" and "Call My Name"— from that session were included on her first MCA album, Alabama Song×Alabama Song1998 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Pardon Me3:412Long Black Train4:273Alabama Song3:534Call My Name3:445The One That Got Away (Got Away With My Heart)2:216I Found a Letter2:567Easier to Forget3:018Set You Free3:589A Soft Place to Fall3:5210Tell Me Baby4:1611Is Heaven Good Enough for You4:45.
When Brown moved from MCA Records to sister label Universal South, Moorer followed. Her 2002 album, Miss Fortune×Miss Fortune2002 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Tumbling Down4:192Cold in California4:523Let Go3:504Ruby Jewel Was Here5:545Can’t Get There From Here3:086Steal the Sun4:417Up This High3:278Hey Jezebel4:309Mark My Word2:5210No Place for a Heart4:0411Yessirree5:2712Going Down3:5713Dying Breed6:47, earned more raves, but did not meet sales expectations. It contained the ballad "Tumbling Down," which was featured on the soundtrack of the popular 2002 film The Rookie.
Her live album Show was recorded in one night at 12th and Porter in Nashville. It features the first recorded collaboration between Moorer and Lynne.
After releasing Show and a DVD on Universal South, Moorer moved to independent label Sugar Hill Records. With a slightly rougher edge than past efforts, The Duel was released in April 2004.
Moorer's first husband, Doyle Lee Primm, was featured as a songwriter on her first four albums. They divorced in 2005.
After serving as his opening act on a European tour, Moorer married fellow singer/songwriter Steve Earle. Earle produced her 2006 album, Getting Somewhere×Getting Somewhere13 June 2006 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Work to Do2:512You’ll Never Know2:323Hallelujah3:264Fairweather3:295New Years Day2:586How She Does It2:597Where You Are2:448Take It So Hard3:339If It’s Just for Today3:4010Getting Somewhere2:46. Moorer wrote all the songs, with the exception of one co-written with Earle. They were both nominated for the Best Country Collaboration with Vocals Grammy, for the song "Days Aren't Long Enough" from Earle's Washington Square Serenade in 2008. The song was also nominated for an Americana Music Association award. Moorer gave birth to the couple's first child, John Henry Earle, on April 5, 2010, but they separated in 2012 and divorced in 2015.
Moorer released the Buddy Miller-produced Mockingbird in February 2008;[4] an album mainly of covers of songs by female singer/songwriters including her sister, Shelby Lynne.

In 2009, Moorer performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.[5] She appeared in the off-Broadway Rebel Voices, a dramatization of Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's Voices of a People's History of the United States in late 2007. Also, in 2009, she appeared on the BBC series Transatlantic Sessions, Series 4, Episodes 4 and 5, performing a version of the Irish folk song, "Carrickfergus". She toured with the Jerry Douglas and Ally Bain led Transatlantic Sessions band in early 2011.
In 2015, Moorer released her ninth album, Down to Believing×Down to Believing16 March 2015 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Like It Used to Be3:192Thunderstorm / Hurricane2:483I Lost My Crystal Ball3:084Down to Believing4:585Tear Me Apart3:056If I Were Stronger4:087Wish I4:288Blood3:309Mama Let the Wolf In3:2110I’m Doing Fine3:0711Back of My Mind4:1812Have You Ever Seen the Rain?2:4313Gonna Get It Wrong3:50, which marked a return to collaborating with Kenny Greenberg.
In August 2017, Moorer released her tenth album, Not Dark Yet, in collaboration with her sister. Produced by British folk singer Teddy Thompson, it featured covers of songs by Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan, Nirvana and The Killers as well as one original song written by Moorer and Lynne, "Is It Too Much." During an extended interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame, the duo revealed that they were planning a second collaborative album which would instead feature all original material and that they were to begin writing together for the new project in 2018.
Moorer co-produced the 2019 Hayes Carll record What It Is. She and Carll were married on May 12, 2019. Moorer's album Blood×Blood25 October 2019 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Bad Weather4:272Cold Cold Earth3:213Nightlight4:194The Rock and the Hill3:395I'm the One to Blame2:296Set My Soul Free3:097The Ties That Bind3:558All I Wanted (Thanks Anyway)3:349Blood4:0910Heal3:04 was to be released October 25, 2019; her book, Blood: A Memoir, was scheduled for publication on October 29, 2019, on Da Capo Press.
In May 2024, Moorer announced that she had taken a job as a writer-editor at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Personal life

In 2005, she married country singer-songwriter Steve Earle with whom she had a son, John Henry Earle, in April 2010. Their son was diagnosed with autism at 23 months old. In March 2014, it was announced that Earle and Moorer had separated. Their divorce was finalized in 2015.
Moorer married musician Hayes Carll on May 12, 2019.

Singles

A "Alabama Song×Alabama Song1998 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Pardon Me3:412Long Black Train4:273Alabama Song3:534Call My Name3:445The One That Got Away (Got Away With My Heart)2:216I Found a Letter2:567Easier to Forget3:018Set You Free3:589A Soft Place to Fall3:5210Tell Me Baby4:1611Is Heaven Good Enough for You4:45" reached number 73 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks chart.

Guest singles

A Song was credited on the charts to Kid Rock with Sheryl Crow or Allison Moorer.

Collaborations

Contributed vocals for two songs, "When She Passed By" and "A Perfect Hand", on David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's concept album, Here Lies Love (2009).
Appears on two albums with The Chieftains: In 2003 on Further Down the Old Plank Road singing "Hick's Farewell" and in 2005 on Live From Dublin: A Tribute To Derek Bell singing "Carrickfergus".
Performed with Steve Earle on the song "After the Fire is Gone" from Coal Miner's Daughter: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn (2010).
Performed the female lead vocals in a reworked version Kid Rock's hit "Picture". The song was co-written and originally recorded with Sheryl Crow. Rock's label, Atlantic Records, was unable to obtain permission from Crow's label, A&M Records, to release the original version as a single, thus it was rerecorded with Moorer.
Has often toured and recorded vocals with Steve Earle since 2006, and was a member of his band the Dukes and Duchesses.
Duets with Josh Turner on the Hank Williams song "Alone and Forsaken", which appears on his 2020 album Country State of Mind.