Allison Moorer – “The Broken Girl”
Posted on | January 26, 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
Top 20 of 2009: #20-11
Posted on | December 30, 2009 | 2 Comments
Here is some of the music that struck me in 2009. In case you missed it, read the manifesto for this site. It might help you understand where I am coming from. If you didn’t see the Bird List, now might be a good time to check it out.
#20: Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women
Dave continues a great late-career run. Come to think of it, his “run” has never stopped, or really even slowed. Read a single review.
Reverent enough to know when to leave the song alone, but restless enough to know when to shake things up.
There is country music that is funny outside of “She Left Me For Jesus”. Most of it is here.
Mining that Canadiana sound, BoH comes up with something fresh. Good songs and great voices. Read a single review.
This should probably be filed under “educational” rather than “country”. Read a single review.
Wry humor and stripped down execution from the Great White North. Read a single review.
A beautiful sounding record, with great songs to back it up. Possibly his most consistent. Read the original review.
This sounds old, worn in, and gorgeous. I don’t think people are used to quality of this level anymore.
#12: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
His departure didn’t kill the Drive-By Truckers, but gave us double the output. DBT also put out a rarities record, and Isbell had the best song (”TVA”) on it. Read the original review.
One thing you can say about Robert Keen is that he always sounds like he is having fun. Read the original review.
Throwback Thursday – Steve Earle – “What’s A Simple Man To Do?”
Posted on | December 3, 2009 | 1 Comment
1. Steve Earle hails from Schertz, Texas, just down the road from San Antonio, the home of one Doug Sahm. It is understandable, then, that some of Sahm’s influence might trickle down into Steve’s music. However, Earle chose to pay the man direct tribute on “What’s A Simple Man To Do”, from his 1996 record Jerusalem, which wears Sahm’s influence on its sleeve.
2. The song reveals itself in the form of a letter, read over a pumping Vox organ that would make Augie Meyers double take. A man who has transgressed on his promise to “never cross the border” tries to explain why he finds himself in America. After losing his job in the border factory, he explains that he met a man in Tijuana who gave him a job selling “red balloons”. Though he never meant to stay, he now reveals a little more about his location, saying he “never even saw the police comin’”. At the end of it all, he has few excuses other than being a “simple man” with few options in life, choosing to chase an opportunity.
3. Earle makes a statement (which is not at all unusual) about immigration, surrounding it with Sahm’s unmistakeable Tex-Mex sound. He gets in and out of the song in under two and a half minutes, but the song leaves a musical mark, if not bringing attention to a larger issue. Hard to speak for the man, but I imagine Doug would be proud.
Steve Earle – What’s A Simple Man To Do
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