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Mockingbird | 
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| Artist: Allison Moorer
Label: New Line Records
Category: Music
List Price: $15.98
Buy New: $10.67
You Save: $5.31 (33%)
New (45) Used (6) from $9.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  73 reviews
Sales Rank: 8755
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 5.3 x 4.9 x 0.3
MPN: 39106
UPC: 794043910623
EAN: 0794043910623
ASIN: B00113R1I4
Release Date: February 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New and Factory Sealed Item Fast Shipping
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| Tracks:
| • | Mockingbird | | • | Ring Of Fire | | • | Dancing Barefoot | | • | I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl | | • | Go, Leave | | • | Revelator | | • | Both Sides Now | | • | Daddy, Goodbye Blues | | • | She Knows Where She Goes | | • | Orphan Train | | • | Where Is My Love | | • | I'm Looking For Blue Eyes |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
One of the most technically gifted vocalists in contemporary country, Allison Moorer sharpens her interpretive chops through this selection of songs from other female artists. After setting the tone with her self-composed, bittersweet title track, framed by chamber strings and punctuated with a saxophone solo, she and ace producer-guitarist Buddy Miller find revelatory dimensions in material by artists ranging from Nina Simone (the sultry, torchy "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl") to Joni Mitchell (an older-and-wiser "Both Sides Now") to June Carter Cash ("Ring of Fire," which she wrote for her husband, Johnny, and which here features a languid vocal over a rhythm loop). You'd expect Moorer to do fine by her sister Shelby Lynne ("She Knows Where She Goes"), Gillian Welch ("Revelator"), and Julie Miller ("Orphan Train"), but it's a real surprise to hear her connecting from the inside out with Patti Smith's hypnotic "Dancing Barefoot" or channeling the blues of Ma Rainey ("Daddy, Goodbye Blues," featuring Moorer's husband Steve Earle). Moorer shouldn't give up writing, but she obviously doesn't need to write much to make inspired music that sounds very much her own. --Don McLeese
Product Description
Working with producer and acclaimed roots artist Buddy Miller on this release, Moorer has conjured a rich pastiche of the phases of women's hearts, lives, needs, and yearnings on this recording of other peoples' songs. It's about honoring the women who inspired her. "Mockingbird" is an album of subtlety, sensuality, and grace. Moorer is a 2008 Grammy Award nominee for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (Steve Earle & Allison Moorer).
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| Customer Reviews: Read 68 more reviews...
Good covers album October 23, 2008
While some of these songs don't really fit Allison's voice, her voice is strong enough to prevent any of these from being a true dud. Strongest cover is of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now." I'd even put that cover up with the original.
 And your bird can sing October 6, 2008
I recently caught Alison Moorer in concert as she opened for her firebrand husband, Steve Earle, on his Washington Square Serenade tour. Other than the fact that she is Mrs. Earle and Shelby Lynne's sister, I didn't know much about her. But I was impressed enough by her performance to pick this disc up after the show.
"Mockingbird" is a covers album that rises and falls like most, on the strength of the interpretations. Moorer has a beautiful, clear voice that works when she digs to the core of the song's emotion, like her spatial vibe on "Ring of Fire." Like her husband, she is also unafraid of putting a rocker's pulse to songs that would naturally accommodate it, as she does here to Patti Smith's "Dancing Barefoot." On her own composition (the title track) Moorer connects the way the cool female singers of the 70's like Carly Simon or Joni Mitchell (who pops up with "Both Sides Now.") used to.
However, there are a few misses. The scratchy psuedo-old-timey production of "Daddy Goodbye Blues" is irritating. Some of the songs just lack spunk. All is forgiven with the closer (and concert highlight) "Looking for Blue Eyes," a lament that shows Moorer's country gifts to perfection. "Mockingbird" falls into the same league as, for instance, kd lang's Hymns of the 49th Parallel, where a really gifted singer works a promising turf but can't always hit the mark.
For an example of this type of album done just right, check out Slaid Cleaves' Unsung.
Soulful crooning still falls a little flat August 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Allison Moorer has a wonderfully smoky singing voice, the kind that can make for both great sultry jazz interpretation as well as portray the kind of heartbreak that a good country slow song requires. So an album in which she uses that voice to cover both classic jazz and country standards seems like it couldn't miss. Unfortunately, the arrangements on these covers go out of their way to vary Moorer's interpretation from the original without providing that something extra that makes a good cover. Best case in point is what Moorer does with the Johnny Cash standard, "Ring of Fire." It's a hard song to cover to begin with, as Cash's version is pretty well imprinted on the memory of anyone who's heard it, and most of us have heard it hundreds of times. When the song first begins, you don't even quite recognize it as "Ring of Fire," but when you ultimately do, you start performing that mental comparison with the Cash version and every choice that Moorer makes just seems to have been done to be different.
Sometimes it works--the best song here for me is "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl," which recalls Nina Simone but adds enough country tinge that makes it work for Moorer--but for the most part these are non-descript covers that you play once and promptly forget, which is unfortunate.
 New fan July 5, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Never heard of Moorer until I was reading the bio of her sister Shelby Lynn. Bought MOCHINGBIRD..... Allison has a great voice, warm... personal... country blues would be my discription. Love this cd
diamond in the rough May 9, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Allison Moorer is a welcome relief to all the craziness on the radio today. The songs are mellow and laid back, all are beautifully done and her voice overall reminds me of Paula Cole, most notably on Dancing Barefoot. Some of her song choices are a little off the wall, particularly Both Sides Now, but there's definitely bountiful talent here.
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