Allison Moorer

Mockingbird | New Line
By MIKAEL WOOD  |  February 26, 2008
3.0 3.0 Stars
insideallison_m
Allison Moorer has been overshadowed her entire career by the success of older sister Shelby Lynne, and that’s hardly changed with the release of the ladies’ new CDs, both of which are covers discs. (It was, after all, Lynne’s Dusty Springfield tribute, Just a Little Lovin’, that occasioned a splashy New York Times Magazine profile a few weeks back.) Yet Moorer is an impressive stylist with a gorgeous Southern-soul voice all her own; her albums haven’t elicited the attention Lynne’s have, but a few of them (particularly 2006’s Getting Somewhere) are just as good. Here she covers material by some of her favorite female musicians, among them Patti Smith, Nina Simone, and Joni Mitchell. Working with producer Buddy Miller, Moorer takes an approach opposite to Lynne’s on the stripped-down Lovin’, giving each track its own distinct personality: Gillian Welch’s “Revelator” is droning folk rock, Simone’s “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl” an organ-led torch song, June Carter Cash’s “Ring of Fire” a drum-looped twang-hop. They all deserve a little spotlight.

Allison Moorer + Steve Earle | Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville | February 29 | 617.931.2000
Related: Cover girls, Start with some Spice, Got live if you want it, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Nina Simone, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell,  More more >
| More

Most Popular
Blogs
 More: Phlog  |  Music  |  Film  |  Books  |  Politics  |  Media  |  Election '08  |  Free Speech  |  All Blogs
ARTICLES BY MIKAEL WOOD
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS | FURTHER  |  July 07, 2010
    Astralwerks (2010)
  •   DEVO | SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY  |  July 01, 2010
    Given the theory of de-evolution these Ohio brainiacs began expounding more than 30 years ago, it makes a sad kind of sense that Devo's first album since 1990's Smooth Noodle Maps offers such a charmless, base-level version of the band's synth-addled new wave.
  •   TAIO CRUZ | ROKSTARR  |  June 24, 2010
    When Taio Cruz sings, "I can't live without you," in "Take Me Back," pop-song conventions tell us he's referring to a lover.
  •   THE FUTUREHEADS | THE CHAOS  |  June 16, 2010
    "I wish that I could stop the noise," sings Barry Hyde not long into The Chaos . It sure doesn't seem that way.
  •   BETTYE LAVETTE | INTERPRETATIONS: THE BRITISH ROCK SONGBOOK  |  June 01, 2010
    Bettye LaVette’s previous two albums had titles that required a little digging to unpack.

 See all articles by: MIKAEL WOOD

LATEST SLIDESHOWS

All Slideshows