Background

Allison Moorer was born on June 21, 1972, in Mobile, Alabama, United States. She grew up in a musical family and started singing when she was three. She was raised in Frankville, Alabama and later Monroeville, Alabama, after the deaths of her parents.

Education

Allison Moorer attended a college at the University of South Alabama and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in public relations in June of 1993. The day she took her last exam, she moved to Nashville and got her diploma by mail.

Career

Allison Moorer moved to her sister singer and songwriter Shelby Lynne to Nashville, Tennessee, and began singing backgrounds in Lynne's band full time and toured extensively with her. Working as a background singer, Moorer got hired a dozen or so times to sing demos for songwriters. In June 1996, she took part in a tribute to her songwriter friend, the late Walter Hyatt, singing his "Tell Me Baby" at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. Nashville agent Bobby Cudd was in attendance and subsequently introduced her to renowned producer and MCA Nashville president Tony Brown. He became her collaborator, co-writer, and co-producer. They worked on music together, wrote some songs, and she signed a deal with Tony Brown at MCA Records in August of 1997.

Her first introduction to the public was with a song called “A Soft Place to Fall,” which appeared in the Oscar-nominated film, The Horse Whisperer. The song, which she co-wrote with Gwil Owen, was chosen for the film by its star and director, Robert Redford. Her first album, Alabama Song, was released in 1998. Her second album, The Hardest Part, was released in 2000. After that, Moorer with Tony Brown went to her sister's label Universal South. Her new album on this label, which was produced by R.S. Field and co-produced by Doyle Primm, is titled Miss Fortune (2002). It contained the ballad, "Tumbling Down,” which was featured on the soundtrack of the popular film The Rookie. The album Show (2003) was also released on the label Universal South and then Moorer went to independent label Sugar Hill Records.

In 2004 Moorer released the album The Duel. The next album Getting Somewhere (2006) was produced by Moorer's new husband and fellow singer and songwriter Steve Earle. Moorer wrote all the songs, with the exception of one co-written with Earle. Her next albums include Mockingbird (2008), Crows (2010), Down to Believing (2015). In 2017 Moorer collaborated with her sister Shelby Lynne and released the album Not Dark Yet. It featured covers of songs by Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, and The Killers as well as one original song written by Moorer and Lynne, “Is It Too Much.” Her recent album is Blood (2019). The album serves as a companion piece to her autobiography, Blood: A Memoir (2019). The album Blood serves as a song cycle featuring ten tracks that directly connect to the people, emotions, trauma, and state of mind that are all detailed in the memoir.

Allison Moorer also appeared in The People Speak, off-Broadway Rebel Voices, on the BBC series Transatlantic Sessions, Series 4, Episodes 4 and 5, performing a version of the Irish folk song, "Carrickfergus”. She toured with the Jerry Douglas and Ally Bain led Transatlantic Sessions band.

Achievements

• Allison Moorer was nominated for Academy of Country Music Awards as Top New Female Vocalist, and for Americana Music Honors & Awards as Artist of the Year. Her song "A Soft Place to Fall" was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song at the 1999 Academy Awards. She with Steve Earle were both nominated for the Best Country Collaboration with Vocals Grammy, for the song "Days Aren't Long Enough". The song was also nominated for an Americana Music Association Award. Her album Down to Believing was one of the Favorite Country Albums in 2015.

Works

More photos

• audio

  • Alabama Song 1998
  • The Hardest Part 2000
  • Miss Fortune 2002
  • Show 2003
  • The Duel 2004
  • Getting Somewhere 2006
  • Mockingbird 2008
  • Crows 2010
  • Down To Believing 2015
  • Not Dark Yet 2017
  • Blood 2019

• book

  • Blood: A Memoir

    (Mobile, Alabama, 1986. A fourteen-year-old girl is awaken...)

    2019

Connections

Allison Moorer's first husband was Doyle Lee Primm. They divorced and in 2005 Moorer married Steve Earle. Their first child John Henry Earle was born on April 5, 2010. The couple separated in September 2012 and divorced in July 2015. Moorer married Hayes Carll on May 12, 2019.

Father:

Vernon Franklin Moorer

Mother:

Laura Lynn Smith Moorer

Ex-husband:

Doyle Lee Primm

Ex-husband:

Steve Earle

Steve Earle is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who bridged the genres of rock and country music. His breakthrough album was the 1986 album Guitar Town. Since then Earle has released 15 studio albums and received three Grammy awards. He authored a collection of short stories, Doghouse Roses (2001), and was the subject of a film documentary, Steve Earle: Just an American Boy (2003).

Son:

John Henry Earle

husband:

Hayes Carll

Hayes Carll is an American singer and songwriter. His first release, Flowers & Liquor (2002), got him the ‘Best New Act’ award from the Houston Press. In 2016 he was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Country Song. He is famous for his plain-spoken poetry and sarcasm. In 2016 he released his newest album Lovers and Leavers.

Sister:

Shelby Lynne

Shelby Lynne was born on October 22, 1968, in Quantico, Virginia, United States. She is a country music singer and songwriter. By age 18, she was married and divorced, raising her sister, Allison Moorer, and struggling to make it as a country/pop singer in Nashville. The success of her pop-rock album I Am Shelby Lynne (1999) led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist (despite being her sixth studio album). Lynne is also known for her distinctive contralto voice.