Track Listing

1. Mockingbird
2. Ring Of Fire
3. Dancing Barefoot
4. I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl
5. Go Leave
6. Revelator
7. Both Sides Now
8. Daddy Goodbye Blues
9. She Knows Where She Goes
10. Orphan Train
11. Where Is My Love
12. I'm Looking For Blue Eyes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60644 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-18
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .14 pounds

CD Description
'Mockingbird' is the seventh studio album from American country singer-songwriter Allison Moorer. Produced and recordedby Buddy Miller at his Nashville based Dogtown Studios, thealbum sees Moorer tackle eleven songs written originally byfemale songwriters including Patti Smith, Cat Power and sister Shelby Lynne, while the title track is penned by Moorer herself.

Customer Reviews

Moorer Magic
In her 7th studio album since 1998, Allison Moorer has covered eleven songs by other female performers. (The yearning "Mockingbird", featuring a great tenor sax solo, is her own composition). So, was this a risky strategy given the risk of unfavourable comparison with the originals?

On the evidence presented here, it was a well considered move because this is a stunning album. With producer Buddy Miller she has re-interpreted these songs and made them her own.

Gone is the jaunty, Mexican trumpet suffused "Ring Of Fire" replaced by a brooding, intense reading with an insistent drumbeat and violin and viola adding to the emotion she attaches to the lyrics.

Kate McGarrigle's "Go, Leave" is an exquisitely moving performance with her soulful alto voice, reminiscent at times of Lucinda Williams, bringing a resonance to the words. A lonesome cello echoes, with a simple beauty, "go, leave, she's better than me."

Gillian Welch's "Revelator" has Celtic undertones as Moorer's voice glides over the mysterious lyrics, "Queen of fakes and imitators, time's the revelator."

She takes on the blues with expressive versions of Nina Simone's "I Wanna Little Sugar In My Bowl" and Ma Rainey's "Daddy Goodbye Blues" and breathes new life into Joni Mitchells's "Both Sides Now".

The album closes with an emotional take on Jessi Colter's "I'm Looking For Blue Eyes" with a spare acoustic guitar letting Moorer's voice take centre stage.

A great production by Buddy Miller, a stellar cast of supporting musicians and majestic performances by the underrated Alison Moorer.

Not mockery - reinterpretation and homage
Steve Earle's missus and Shelby Lynne's kid sister has never quite made the first rank of stardom, despite an Oscar nomination (A Soft Place to Fall from The Horse Whisperer). With this cleverly-titled set of covers, she demonstrates a vocal maturity and interpretive sensitivity which could do the trick. But it is not a complete success. The mixing is often very good but sometimes overwhelms the vocals. There is no doubting her vocal skills, but she deserves better production values.

The opening, self-penned title track is, ironically enough, the weakest. The tune is slight, the seventies-style keyboard arrangement is rather trite, and the whole mix is too smooth by half.

Ring Of Fire becomes a slow, rock-me-gentle anthem, bringing out the smouldering romanticism of the June Carter Cash classic. The effect is quite magical, but some fans of the song may need to listen to this version a few times to tune into it. It's worth it.

Dancing Barefoot is one of the more up-tempo tracks, but perhaps a little too subdued to inspire you with the need to dance, barefoot or otherwise. There's no doubting her vocal skills here, though.

I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl is Blues with a swing -- smooth and easy Blues, without the edge and earthiness. Some listeners will enjoy it, others will prefer their sugar less refined.

Go, Leave has some beautiful orchestration and a delicate, melodic lilt that repays repeated listening.

Revelator is good, but the style is exactly that of Gillian Welch's original, but lacking the brilliance in the guitar accompaniment. So the comparison is negative, even though Moorer sings it well. If a cover simply makes you want to go back to the original, it has surely failed.

I really wanted to enjoy her interpretation of the Joni Mitchell standard Both Sides Now, but I found it frustrating. The melodic thread of the song is so strong, it needs full rein. But Moorer restrains it, trying to add soulfulness, but losing the lyricism.

Daddy, Goodbye Blues boasts a fine Blues guitar backing and a mix that attempts an authentic Delta sound, with a live performance feel. For me, it didn't quite work. The drum beat is too solid and monotonous, becoming intrusive rather than supportive, and the vocals tend to get overwhelmed by both strings and percussion.

She Knows Where She Goes is much more successful, simply because it allows her voice to be heard. There are shades of Sandy Denny in the mournful beauty of the singing.

Orphan Train is a gem -- a beautiful, folksy Gospel performance that does full justice to this classic. Here, Moorer's voice is allowed to weave its spell.

Where Is My Love also succeeds, again because it leaves the singer's voice to do the work and carry the message.

I'm Looking For Blue Eyes gives her voice full range, and leaves you thinking she could extend herself even more. The guitar coda on this track is very effective, and is a nice signing-off to the album.

This is a CD to add to your collection for when you are in a soulful mood, when you need a sweet voice to take you away from the everyday and bring you home to your heart.

Nothing if not soulful
Back in 2001, I was first exposed to the soulful voice of Allison Moorer with her ALABAMA SONG, an album that I reviewed as the best CW collection I'd heard in ages, especially the tracks "Alabama Song" and "A Soft Place to Fall". Her next couple of releases fell short, in my opinion, and I've been waiting for one that struck me as better than average. MOCKINGBIRD, though not back up to 5-star level, is at least that.

Listening to this CD on the way to and at the old 9 to 5 cotton field, I was impressed favorably (or not) enough by several of the tracks to offer comment:

Track 1, "Mockingbird" - The best of the lot at musically rendering longing in the mellow way that I appreciate, and one I'll perhaps pull off onto my iPod in the play list entitled "My Five Decades' Greatest Hits", which currently holds about 170 songs.

Track 4, "I Want A Little Sugar in My Bowl" - If you've just lost your true love and you want to get quietly drunk and thoroughly miserable in the corner of a crummy saloon that has several letters of its neon sign shorted-out and cigarette burns on the bar, this is the jukebox selection that needs to accompany the process.

Track 7, "Both Sides Now" - Just because you have the lyrics to this classic and the band to back you up doesn't mean you should necessarily sing it. This was perhaps the worst track on the CD, sounding amateurish at best. Where's Joni Mitchell when you need her?

Track 8, "Daddy Goodbye Blues" - The acoustic quality of this blues offering is different enough from the other eleven tracks to be jarring. It sounds like it was performed in someone's garage rather than a recording studio. Was the producer trying to be cute, or what?

Track 10, "Orphan Train" - A ponderous gospel dirge, if you like that sort of thing, that would make an excellent addition to the soundtrack of a film set in a blighted West Virginian coal mining town.

Track 12, "I'm Looking for Blue Eyes". In the tradition of I'm-far-from-home-and-broken-hearted-and-dang-your-cheatin'-ways ballads, this is the best for crooning-along in your battered pick-up as you make a night crossing of a desolate and lonely expanse of moonlit desert with your only friend, your faithful dog, in the co-pilot's seat. (C'mon, Buster. Let's hit the road, boy.)

The remaining six inclusions were, to my ears, non-descript. Not bad, just not memorable. Tracks 1 and 12 put the CD over the top into 4-star status for me, with Track 4 getting honorable mention.

I've heard it said that only people who've "suffered" can be poets. I'll take the liberty of extending that observation to include singers, particularly country/western vocalists. If the hypothesis is valid, then much of the happy horse manure I hear on CW radio station must be sung by artists with an insufficient background in heartache. This cannot be the case with Allison Moorer.