I had the chance to ask Allison Moorer a few questions about her favorite records. Her new record Crows comes out February 9th. I covered the first single, “The Broken Girl”, here. Five Records is an occasional feature of artists talking about the music that inspires them. Read more of these posts here.
Tammy Wynette
The Essential Tammy Wynette
“There are so many great records that have influenced me. Tammy Wynette’s Greatest Hits, but also Willie, Waylon, Jessie Colter and Tompall Glaser’s Outlaws and The Jayhawks’ Tomorrow The Green Grass.
Neil Young
Harvest
“Neil is just an all-around great artist — great songwriter, singer, player, and does the work to remain vital even after doing it for so long.”
Joao Gilberto
Getz/Gilberto
“I listened to this record a ton while I was making Crows.”
The Beatles
Help!
“There are many songs I wish I had written! Can we start with the Beatles Help!? It has “Yesterday” on it. I’d take that one…“
Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest
“As far as new releases, I’ve been digging this.”
Allison Moorer – Like The Rain
Posted: January 29th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
1. Allison Moorer and Steve Earle seem to be a good fit, with Earle’s recent record Washington Square Serenade showed him getting damn near mushy on songs like “Days Are Never Long Enough” and “Sparkle and Shine”. The newfound happiness of the relationship has allowed Moorer, on the other hand, to approach difficult material with unrestrained emotion, even on subjects that strike close to home. “The Broken Girl”, the lead single from her new record Crows, shows her highlighting women who have been victimized for many different reasons.
2. Moorer skips over a whole lot of backstory and jumps right into the character, who has replaced “all the happy” in her head, and whose “every step feels like a mistake.” The implications of what happened are many, from abuse to ignorance, but she shows the confusion of the character by noting that even the omniscient narrator doesn’t know how she got “so blue”, broken into “too many pieces”. Moorer gives a voice to the large amount of women that suffer from verbal and physical abuse but never speak out. The central character gives no reason for not speaking out, but is sure she’ll “never say a word”. In light of Moorer (and sister Shelby Lynne)’s family tragedy, this gains a whole new meaning as well, highlighting victims of tragedy who find themselves unable to speak out.
3. Producer R.S. Field (Shelby Lynne, Hayes Carll) gives the song a jangly, relatively lighthearted touch, with an arrangement that wouldn’t be far off from a Jayhawks song. This treatment makes the tough subject matter go down easier, and stands as a metaphor for Moorer’s increased ability to unflinchingly write on difficult subjects. Whether that is a result of age, experience, or her marriage (and child) with Earle, fans of Allison Moorer are the ones reaping the rewards.
Allison Moorer – The Broken Girl
Posted: January 26th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
