SOUNDTRACK4LIFE: THE B-SIDES: Allison Moorer

Showing posts with label Allison Moorer. Show all posts

Thursday, 21 February 2019

Tidy Tunes 2019 #21/28 None 'Ya - Hayes Carll

None 'Ya - Hayes Carll
from the album
What It Is
Produced by Brad Jones and Allison Moorer
Dualtone
Released 15th February 2019

Texas born Country/Folk singer Hayes Carll returned last week with the release of his sixth studio album, 'What It Is'. The album is produced by Brad Jones and Allison Moorer (who also co-wrote six of the twelve songs and is currently engaged to Carll).

The song 'Jesus and Elvis' was written by Carll and Moorer and was recorded by Kenny Chesney in 2016 for his 'Cosmic Hallelujah' album.

In the past Hayes has been nominated in 2016 for the Best Country Song Grammy for his song 'Chances Are' that was recorded by Lee Ann Womack. He won an armful of awards at The Austin Music Awards 2016-2017 including Musician of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Best Male Vocals, and Best Folk Performer. and at the Americana Music Awards in 2010 he won Emerging Artist of the Year.

I saw him in Glasgow supporting Buddy Miller, and can hardly believe that was fourteen years ago! He was pretty good even then promoting what was only his second album 'Little Rock'.

Listen To The Album Here.

Bonus Tracks/Show

Jesus and Elvis
from the album
What It Is

Hayes Carll set
30A Songwriters Festival
January 2019

Monday, 4 December 2017

Soundtrack4Life: The Best Albums of 2017 - #19 Not Dark Yet - Shelby Lynne & Allison Moorer

I could find links for all but one of the songs from the album that sits at #19 on my Best Albums of 2017 List. So click on them to enjoy the sweet sound of Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer.

#19

Not Dark Yet - Shelby Lynne & Allison Moorer

Thirty Tigers (CD)/Silver Cross Records (Vinyl)

Produced by TeddyThompson

Released 18th August 2017

US Folk/Americana Albums #8
US Country Albums #39
UK Americana Albums #3
UK Country Albums #2

Tracklist
1 My List (The Killers cover)
2 Every Time You Leave (The Louvin Brothers cover)
3 Not Dark Yet (Bob Dylan cover)
4 I'm Looking for Blue Eyes (Jessi Coulter cover)
5 Lungs (Townes Van Zandt cover)
6 The Color of a Cloudy Day (Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires cover)
7 Silver Wings (Merle Haggard cover)
8 Into My Arms (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds cover)
9 Lithium (Nirvana cover)
10 Is It Too Much (Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer original)

*************

Sisters Shelby Lynne (the older sister) and Allison Moorer (the younger sister) had never recorded an album together prior to Not Dark Yet. Both had been on their own musical journey releasing a combined twenty three albums between them. Fourteen for Shelby since 1989 and nine for Allison since 1998.

It's an album of covers apart from the final track, Is It Too Much, which is a song written by the sisters dealing with the difficult issue of a very personal situation to them both (you can read about it in the New York Times link below).

Although I am not always bowled over by Cover Albums this one took me by surprise because they have managed to do that thing that makes a Cover Version bearable to listen to...they made the songs their own. It's beautiful from start to finish and the choice of Covers are just startling from The Louvin Brothers to The Killers, Bob Dylan to Jason Isbell and Merle Haggard to Nick Cave and Nirvana!

The good news is that there is the possibility that next year we are going to see another album from them both that will be all original material.

Rolling Stone Interview.

Album Review - The Guardian.

New York Times Article on Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer.

Saturday, 28 November 2015

The S4L Country Album of the Year 2015: Down To Believing - Allison Moorer

There's been some great Country Music Albums released this year and a number of them could easily have been The S4L Country Album of the Year 2015. Allow me to mention a few in passing and also deal with one possible glaring omission (click on the links to enjoy the music).

Angels and Alcohol - Alan Jackson, The Blade - Ashley Monroe, Gone Like The Cotton - The Cox Family, Cass County - Don Henley, The Traveling Kind - Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, Mr Misunderstood - Eric Church, and Pageant Material - Kacey Musgraves.

Absent from that list and indeed this category is a certain Mr Jason Isbell's Something More Than Free. The reason that it is absent is that it is due for far greater recognition to be revealed at a later date, so don't panic and don't be giving me grief!

The album I've chosen is the eigth studio album by Allison Moorer entitled Down To Believing. It had been a five year wait for a follow up to 2010's Crows Album and it's an album that's been crafted against the backdrop of a relationship split from Steve Earle and her young son's diagnosis with autism. It's an album that implies that there were mistakes made on the journey and diversions on the life's highway but she manages to craft from the pain and regrets etc a powerful bunch of tunes that surely must rank as her finest album to date.

Simon Holland, writing for Folk Radio UK said of the album:

"It’s a break-up record, recorded in the fall out of the unravelling of her seven-year marriage to Steve Earle. Now living as a single parent, it also comes on the back of their now five-year-old son’s diagnosis with autism. Both of those factors figure large in the record, but if you’re going to write the headlines then you should also be prepared to tell the story and there’s so much to this record. There is passion, anger, there are questions with few answers, but there is defiance, acceptance, a glimmer of reconciliation and a dash of hope. It walks a highly charged emotional line and in doing so delivers a record that confirms Allison’s place amongst the very best of America’s singer songwriters."

I think that's a great summary of the album.

It's probable that this will not feature highly on the Best of the Year Lists in the Music Press but I'm more than happy to declare it The S4L Country Album of the Year 2015.