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Allison Moorer:  Mockingbird

AMG Review:

There is something oddly "coincidental" about Allison Moorer's Mockingbird album being released just a couple of weeks after her sister Shelby Lynne's Just a Little Lovin'. Both albums are covers sets with one original apiece. That said, they are wildly different albums. While Lynne's record is a stripped down collection of tunes associated with the late British vocalist Dusty Springfield, Moorer's is a natural sounding set of tunes that run the gamut from rock & roll to the early barrelhouse and modern jazz-blues to country and folk and indie — and there is one song on it by Lynne. The album was produced by Buddy Miller and includes a stellar cast of players that includes everyone from Richard Bennett and Moorer's husband Steve Earle to Miller and his wife Julie, Darrell Scott, Tammy Rogers, Tim O'Brien, Phil Madeira, and many others. It's a lush record, but it's an organic one. All the sounds here are rooted in the earth, and everything put in play in these arrangements serves the songs whether they are by June Carter, Patti Smith, or Chan Marshall.

The set opens with Moorer's self-written title track, an open acoustic folksy ballad with warmly toned layers of acoustic guitars, a brushed snare and hi hat, a B-3, and the Nashville String Machine (no, this is not the countrypolitan string sound of old, but something very warm, open, and woody sounding). The tune begins as a folksy ballad but opens up to become a stellar and graceful pop tune with R&B touches courtesy of Jim Hoke's tough tenor saxophone solo. The big crescendo comes when the strings pile up on top of everything but the drums create a big wave for Moorer's contralto to glide over. She's expressive, deep, and heart achingly engaged and goes right down into the middle of them. The version of "Ring of Fire" here will delight fans of Daniel Lanois, though Miller does it way better, without the cavernous reverb that makes cough syrup out of the mix. It's a very slow 4/4 with violin, viola, and B-3 walking alongside the singer as she lets her voice ring over the top. The insistent yet nearly quiet chant of military marching drums is a nice touch. The version of Patti Smith's "Dancin' Barefoot" here simply has to be heard to be believed. It's amazing, and for those who still like rock music, it's a contender for the best track on the set, despite its reverential reading. Moorer's voice is well trained, her enunciation captures what is at the heart of Smith's song as it expresses the kind of desire that no longer panics at the surprising power of its depth — as revealed on the previous track — but surrenders totally to its raw need. The lyrics walk along the knife's edge between third and first person, with the effect of the singer observing herself going through the motions, awash in that violent yet utterly addictive emotion that feels like nothing else. The layers of electric guitars, tambourines, cymbals, and popping drums with the B-3 just washing through it all is monstrous, and obsessive, yet comes right from the same terrain the lyrics and melody do.

Nina Simone's "Sugar in My Bowl" offers a rootsier reading of the great singer and pianist's tune. Moorer can sing anything, and her manner of working with the acoustic guitars, bluesing out around the keyboards and brushed drums as she sways and swings and swoops, letting her voice walk right to the edge before reigning it in. The version of Gillian Welch's and David Rawlings' "The Revelator" is a great improvement on the original: it's more fleshed out musically, just as it needed to be. Simply put, Moorer is a better singer; she doesn't whine or affect with her voice; she's unafraid to let the real darkness in the lyric come to the fore, she doesn't hide it under a false vein of innocence or victimization, or a feigned backwoods sheen. It's wonderful to hear Kate McGarrigle's "Go Leave" again, especially given this spare treatment. It will hopefully create in those hearing it the desire to investigate the McGarrigles own records. Moorer's voice simply allows the song to have its way, while she follows it with rapt attention. It's easy to understand Moorer's attraction to Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," though we didn't need another version. Period. We do, however, need more revealing versions of songs like Ma Rainey's "Daddy Goodbye Blues" with Steve Earle's nasty distorted electric guitar underscored by a big old New Orleans style bass drum, a mandolin, and Moorer singing through some old microphone. In fact, other than the electric guitar amp — which sounds like it's there but recorded without being plugged into the board — all the instruments sound as if they are recorded from the floor with the vocal. Killer.

The remaining tracks are all fine as well. But here, Julie Miller's "Orphan Train," as sung by one — Moorer's mother was killed by her father in front of her and Lynne — is far too powerful to describe here, as is Lynne's "She Knows Where She Goes," which is its prelude. Suffice to say that these are both songs that come from the American country and folk traditions that Nashville is just plain afraid of because their truth hasn't been included in its version of the nation since Gretchen Peters' classic song "Independence Day" was sung by Martina McBride at the dawn of the contemporary country era. Miller is one of those songwriters who isn't out there enough, and maybe that's what she wants, but it would sure be good to hear more from her. The album nears its end with Marshall's tender, simple, and deeply moving "Where Is My Love," which is a wonderful follow-up to the aforementioned cuts. It sounds as if it's sung by the survivor, the hero, the empty-handed and full-hearted who has paid the cost and has little to show for it except the ache of loneliness. When Moorer, Miller and company bring it all to a close with Jessi Colter's "I'm Looking for Blue Eyes," it's as if that circle that began with "Mockingbird" has come fully around; it travels from leaving something behind, to becoming being immersed in — indeed overwhelmed by — the power of desire, lust, and the newness and danger of love, to loss, reflection, survival, and the cleansing loneliness that is at the heart of beginning again. Moorer, a songwriter and singer who has followed a restless and treacherous path through the wiles of Nashville's machine-like music business and lived to tell about it, ups her own ante here both creatively and emotionally. It is her warmest, most ambitious, searing, and gutsy record yet.

Culture - International Herb

morn peeps

listening to espnnews

yank, thanks my a$$ is still hurting from last week, congrats brother 

Good Morning WAYLT Gurus...Looks like a good day for a Brew and a Bar-b-que huh?

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Rusted Root - Cruel Sun

Rock and DF you know I like the Jam Bands......

Hey AL; you working too?

I'm working Rock. Normally this is hell week 4 day shift with all the Bosses here.

Rockstar - Nickelback

thank you for the welcome. you're right there are a lot of varied tastes that i've seen on here, most i have heard but some i haven't. iam a little limited to what i can get my hands (and ears) on right now but i will definitely keep track of new ideas in the thread.

thanks again

-Good morning, Cleve, TC, Yank, & everyone!  How's ol' Amos these days, Yank?

-Kinda popping in to post my tunes here, but I am actually pretty busy taking this opportunity to get caught up with folks back home...

Now Playing:

John Scofield  Works For Me

AMG:

Guitarist John Scofield takes the traditional jazz route on Works for Me, an excellent collection of 11 compositions that feature the all-star lineup of Christian McBride on acoustic bass, Kenny Garrett on alto saxophone, Brad Mehldau on acoustic piano, and the dynamic Billy Higgins on drums. This CD is unlike the alternative rock and funk jazz fusion on his previous efforts A Go Go and Bump. On this offering, John Scofield gives a great reassessment of straight-ahead post-bop jazz that is distinguished and stimulating. On "Big J," Scofield and saxophonist Kenny Garrett make a great team as they reach out with a call and response improvisation that engrosses the listener throughout its development. On "Loose Cannon," Garret means business as he launches into some great straight-ahead hard blowing. The ensemble changes the mood on "Love You a Long Time" with a soft approach to this resonant, melodic ballad. Drummer Billy Higgins is impossible to miss on "Freepie" and Christian McBride performs his stellar top to bottom command of acoustic bass techniques throughout this great program. Christian McBride plays a great solo on "Heel to Toe." From the hard swinging "Do I Crazy?" to the tranquil "Mrs. Scofield's Waltz," the versatility of John Scofield shows why he is one of the "Big 3" of current jazz guitarists.

-I saw John & Co. perform back in 2001-  what a show...

I know what you mean; I dread this week!  Luckily, with today's holiday and I have training Thursday, I only have two days that I really have to put up with it.

Hey Yank, Cleve, TC.

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