Allison
Moorer
Biography Page
Allison Moorer was raised in the small community of Frankville, Alabama. She describes her hometown as "...beyond rural - hardly a dot on the map." Allison is the younger sister of country singer, Shelby Lynne - who first attracted attention as a back-up singer at a Nashville studio. Allison's mother sang around the house, while her father, a teacher, played in a band on weekends. Allison was singing Hank Williams songs by the age of three.
Allison attended college and changed her major several times before graduating with a degree in communications. She then moved to Nashville to pursue a career as a back-up singer. Like many artists, she landed a publishing deal before landing a recording contract. It was around this time she met her now-husband Butch Primm. It was Butch that suggested that Allison stop singing back-up and "do her own thing."
She couldn't have gotten better advice. MCA Records' Tony Brown signed Allison to the label after a six song showcase. She heard the words, "We've got deal!" before she stepped off the stage. Her career was launched with her song, "A Soft Place To Fall" being featured in the Robert Redford film, The Horse Whisperer.
Her first release on MCA, Alabama Song, was hailed by Rolling Stone as being "spectacular, full of that rare elegant intimacy that was once the cornerstone of country music." Watch for more from Allison soon!
"I feel like the luckiest girl in the world," says Allison Moorer on the eve of the release of her debut album, Alabama Song. Such modesty is indeed becoming, and luck has certainly been on Moorer's side. But good fortune is only part of the story with Moorer, whose awesome natural artistic talents and genuine devotion to the true cross of country music have made her debut one of the most heralded in recent memory, even before Alabama Song hit the streets.
Dubbed 1998's "best country star in the making" in the Nashville Scene's Best of Nashville issue, Moorer has already wowed listeners with her single from The Horse Whisperer soundtrack. "A Soft Place To Fall" so impressed Robert Redford, he cast Moorer in the film. The single incited Music Row Magazine to proclaim "this, my friends, is country music, and it is talent."
Alabama Song amply fulfills the considerable promise that has preceded it. The album not only showcases a voice the Austin-American Statesman calls "a sweet and smoky delight, as pungent as barbecue sauce and as liltingly memorable as a first kiss," but also reveals what Billboard's Chet Flippo observes as "writing talent to spare and the ability to retain the best of country's traditions while keeping the music sounding current and fresh." Penning 10 of the 11 tracks with co-writers Butch Primm, hitmaker Kostas and rising Nashville talent Gwil Owen, Moorer has achieved her aim of "reflecting the spirit of country music" in a way that should capture the ear of the mainstream country audience, fans of renegade Americana sounds, and anyone who appreciates songs and music filled with heart, honesty and genuine quality.
"Country music does have such a spirit about it. That's what we tried to capture on this record," Moorer says, "and that's what I hope to continue doing - help country music carry on."
Raised in the small Alabama community of Frankville, just north of Mobile, Moorer was weaned on George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris. "There was music around constantly," Moorer recalls, and she began singing harmonies as a toddler, eventually thinking she’d make a career of it. So after taking her last exam at the University of South Alabama, instead of waiting around to pick-up her degree at graduation, she simply packed her car and headed to Nashville. "I didn't plan to pursue a solo career. I just thought I'd be doing my background singer thing."
Indeed, Moorer had already begun to make a name for herself in Music City as a harmony singer when she met Butch Primm. An Oklahoma-reared musician, Primm soon became Moorer’s husband and frequent songwriting partner while inspiring her to uncover other latent talents. "He believed in me from the first time he heard me open my mouth," Moorer says. "I picked up the guitar and we began to colaborate," she explains. "We definitely share a vision. The saying about the sum being greater than the parts - that's definitely the story with Butch and me."
After a friend recommended Moorer to Jonathan Stone of Windswept Pacific, all it took was one meeting including a short acoustic performance for the publisher to sign her to a songwriting deal. Then in June of 1996, Allison took part in a series of tributes to her friend, the late Walter Hyatt, singing Hyatt's "Tell Me Baby" at star-studded benefits for his family at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium and Austin's Paramount Theater, as well as on a special segment of Austin City Limits. Nashville agent Bobby Cudd of Monterey Peninsula Artists, who helped organize the shows, was sufficiently impressed by Moorer's performance to hook her up with famed producer Tony Brown, the President of MCA Nashville.
After a few meetings, Brown asked Allison to cut some demos, from which two tracks - "Pardon Me" and "Call My Name" - ended up on Alabama Song. After a showcase for MCA, "I got off stage and Tony said, 'We've got a deal'," Moorer recalls.
When "A Soft Place To Fall" was tapped for The Horse Whisperer as the compilation’s first single, the raves it generated only confirmed the talent Brown heard in the young artist. Moorer has said she felt "like a freshman in a class full of seniors" alongside such veteran artists as Dwight Yoakam, Emmylou Harris, George Strait, The Mavericks and Lucinda Williams. But, the reaction to "A Soft Place To Fall" - which the Houston Press called "The Horse Whisperer’s most stunning performance" - suggests she's quickly moving to the head of every class. Thanks to her torchy vocals and the song’s tender sentiments, Moorer was singled out time and again as an impressive new talent who held her own among the stars.
Likewise, Allison's first concert appearances have garnered similar acclaim. Making her live debut at the 1998 South By Southwest Music Festival, she packed Austin’s La Zona Rosa, and sparked a buzz in the media and music industry that heralds the arrival of an important new singing and songwriting talent. "She already makes nearly every female singer in Nashville sound as if they have emphysema," quipped the Austin American-Statesman after the SXSW showcase.
Yet despite such praise, Allison Moorer continues to thank her lucky stars, and keep herself focused on the real prize. "I've had incredible luck. I don't know how, but I'm not gonna question it, because I am having so much fun," she says. "I have a record company that's really behind me and lets me do what I want to do. And I have an album I'm really proud of.
"I don't have any notions of huge success. You just have to take whatever comes your way, hope for the best, and try to get your music to as many people as you can. I just want to keep doing it for as long as possible. I've been given an amazing opportunity, and I don't want to squander it by making music that's less than something I can feel proud of."
Ultimately, it comes down to a simple formula for this dedicated adherent to the spirit of country music. "I write songs, I sing, I make music. The rest is left up to the gods. "
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