Is Allison Moorer ‘Getting Somewhere’?

updated 8:20 p.m. ET June 21, 2006

NEW YORK - She may have traded up in musical husbands who like to help out in the studio, but Allison Moorer is intent on making sure that she’s in charge of the music released under her name.

In so doing, she may prove the album title “Getting Somewhere” prophetic.

Moorer took a job as Steve Earle’s opening act in 2004 and wound up marrying him before the tour was even through. Earle produced Moorer’s new disc. Although she’d gone that route before with ex-husband Doyle “Butch” Primm calling the shots in the studio, Moorer said the situation is different this time.

“It was time for me to step up to the plate and be a real singer-songwriter, which is what I’ve always wanted to be and what I’m going to be,” said Moorer, between sips of an iced cappuccino at a diner around the block from the Greenwich Village apartment she shares with Earle.

“I just wanted to claim more of it,” she said. “It wasn’t that I was dissatisfied with what I was doing. It was just that there was something that was missing and I needed to take responsibility for my own art.”
“Getting Somewhere” is a short (32 minutes), snappy disc that’s more rock ’n’ roll than country or soul. The leap she takes with her art is reminiscent of the way “This is Shelby Lynne” was a breakthrough for her big sister.

Her determination is evident from the opening notes. “Work to Do” feels like a kiss-off to an ex-husband. “Over and over again I let you tell me how I wasn’t good enough,” she sings. “That ain’t love.”

Away from the microphone
Offstage, Moorer, who’ll turn 34 Wednesday, is diplomatic.

“I think there were some real negative forces around me,” she said. “I’m not about to name names; I think it’s ugly to do that in public. I have better manners than that. Actually, it’s not aimed at anybody but myself, and trying to get rid of these negative thoughts.”

Women in general tend to shrug off compliments, but will brood for days if someone tells them their butt is too big, she said.

With its dirty-sounding guitar and tambourine accents, the album has the signatures of an Earle production. Moorer insists, however, that she wasn’t trading one domineering husband for another in the studio.

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