By Paul T. Mueller –
Singer-songwriter Allison Moorer gets a lot done on her newest album, Blood. In its 10 songs, Moorer addresses her troubling past, deals with her present, and finds hope for the future. Recorded as a companion piece to her memoir of the same title, Blood is a courageous and inspiring musical document.
By way of background, Moorer’s father, Vernon Franklin Moorer, ended his troubled marriage to her mother by killing her and then himself when Allison Moorer was 14. With the help of her sister, singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne, Moorer pursued her musical ambitions and carved out a successful career (Blood is her 11th studio album, dating back to her 1998 debut, Alabama Song). She wrote and recorded Blood after she realized that some of the stories she wanted to tell – the stories of everyone in the family – could be told well in song.
The album starts on an ominous note with “Bad Weather,” whose imagery portends a coming storm. Moorer next revisits “Cold Cold Earth,” a minimalist retelling of her parents’ story that was first released on her second album. The gentle “Nightlight” is a hymn to her sister, who was a few years older than Moorer and tried to shield her from the worst of their family’s tragedy.
“I’m the One to Blame” is a confessional ballad that was written more than 50 years ago by Moorer’s father, an aspiring and ultimately frustrated musician. Moorer’s beautiful voice and solitary guitar work well with the sadness of the lyrics: “But I’ll do my best, if you’ll do the same / and forgive me, my love, ’cause I’m the one to blame.”
Moorer describes her mother’s struggles in the first-person “The Rock and the Hill,” and her own in “Set My Soul Free” and “The Ties that Bind,” which describe her efforts to leave the worst of her past behind and move forward. The title track finds her reckoning with the idea that we are the guardians of what we inherit from those who came before. “All your secrets have a home,” she sings. “They won’t be traded, won’t be sold.”
The album concludes with “Heal,” which Moorer has called “probably the most important song I’ve ever written.” A collaboration with fellow songwriter Mary Gauthier (and the only co-write on the album), it’s a quiet prayer for healing, forgiveness and clarity.
Moorer’s collaborators, overseen by producer and guitarist Kenny Greenberg, provide excellent backing without getting in the way of her honest words and effective delivery. Blood isn’t exactly a feel-good album, but it’s a powerful one.