She may have traded up in musical husbands who like to help out in the studio, but Allison Moorer is intent on making sure that she’s in charge of the music released under her name.
In so doing, she may prove the album title “Getting Somewhere” prophetic.
Moorer took a job as Steve Earle’s opening act in 2004 and wound up marrying him before the tour was even through. Earle produced Moorer’s new disc. Although she’d gone that route before with ex-husband Doyle “Butch” Primm calling the shots in the studio, Moorer said the situation is different this time.
“It was time for me to step up to the plate and be a real singer-songwriter, which is what I’ve always wanted to be and what I’m going to be,” said Moorer, between sips of an iced cappuccino at a diner around the block from the Greenwich Village apartment she shares with Earle.
“I just wanted to claim more of it,” she said. “It wasn’t that I was dissatisfied with what I was doing. It was just that there was something that was missing and I needed to take responsibility for my own art.”“Getting Somewhere” is a short (32 minutes), snappy disc that’s more rock ’n’ roll than country or soul. The leap she takes with her art is reminiscent of the way “This is Shelby Lynne” was a breakthrough for her big sister.
Her determination is evident from the opening notes. “Work to Do” feels like a kiss-off to an ex-husband. “Over and over again I let you tell me how I wasn’t good enough,” she sings. “That ain’t love.”
Away from the microphone
Offstage, Moorer, who’ll turn 34 Wednesday, is diplomatic.
“I think there were some real negative forces around me,” she said. “I’m not about to name names; I think it’s ugly to do that in public. I have better manners than that. Actually, it’s not aimed at anybody but myself, and trying to get rid of these negative thoughts.”
Women in general tend to shrug off compliments, but will brood for days if someone tells them their butt is too big, she said.
With its dirty-sounding guitar and tambourine accents, the album has the signatures of an Earle production. Moorer insists, however, that she wasn’t trading one domineering husband for another in the studio.
It’s not like she and Earle don’t fight; “You’ll Never Know” is even a song about one of their arguments. “But we’re still married,” she said.
“A lot of people may believe differently, but Steve is really open-minded,” she said, “and as a producer, his goal is to give the artist what they want.”
Also like her older sister, Moorer tried briefly and failed to make it in mainstream country. Now with the Sugar Hill label, she fits more neatly under the adult alternative umbrella.
She dedicates the song “Where You Are” to Lynne. Moorer wrote it as a duet but said their schedules didn’t mesh. The supportive lyrics make it feel like Moorer is the big sister to Lynne, who’s four years older.
“We’ve kind of gotten to this point in our relationship where it’s really easy and it’s really beautiful and we can appreciate being sisters,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs and fusses and fights because we’re both really hard-headed. But we’ve kind of hit this spot that is really cool and really adult, warm and loving.”
Letting goMoorer’s music also revisits a tough childhood. “New Year’s Day” is told from the perspective of a young girl who tries to “stay out of the way” as her parents fight.
When she was 14, Moorer’s father shot and killed her mother before turning the gun on himself. She’s addressed that horror in song before, but on the new “How She Does It” she writes about her mother sneaking out of the house and driving away to leave the misery behind.
“I don’t really know the reason why I wrote ‘How She Does It,’ but when I realized what I was doing, I realized I could let her get away this time,” she said. “So I did. And once I did, it turned out to be a huge release. I wanted her to get away. I didn’t want the song to end like it had ended so many times.
“I felt like I had set her free,” she said. “I had let my mother go after 20 years.”
For many years, the shooting has been the filter through which she looks at life. Now, as a newlywed with a positive outlook on things, that’s not necessarily bad.
“I use it to remember how short life is, and that I better get all of it while I can,” she said.
While Moorer is promoting her album, Earle is busy finishing his first novel. The couple splits time between the New York apartment and a home in Tennessee, and try to schedule concert dates so they can spend as much time together as possible.
“As soon as Steve and I spent any time together, we just became friends really quickly,” she said. “We discovered we have a lot in common and are kind of the same person in a lot of ways.”
Getting the most out of life is the emotion behind the song “If It’s Just For Today,” which she dedicates to the 51-year-old Earle.
Considering it’s Earle’s seventh marriage, that title probably makes for a wise philosophy.
“Well, I hadn’t thought about that,” she said, “but I guess that is kind of funny.”