![\"Issue39-ALLISON-MOORER\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Issue39-ALLISON-MOORER.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nFive years ago, as Allison Moorer released her seventh studio album, Crows<\/i>, she was married to singer-songwriter Steve Earle and pregnant with their son. Now, as she releases her latest, Down to Believing<\/i>, much has changed. Her near-decade-long marriage to Earle has ended, and their son, John Henry, has been diagnosed with autism.<\/p>\n
But Moorer has never been shy about exploring personal issues in her music, and has proven herself a master at finding beauty in pain. \u201cI\u2019ve been writing about my family and my experiences since day one,\u201d she says. \u201cThey shape and color my filter, so they have a lot to do with how I see the world. Yes, the songs are very personal, but really, I don\u2019t see any other reason to write.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the process isn\u2019t easy, Moorer works to make sense of personal issues through her art. \u201cI don\u2019t sit around lamenting that I\u2019ve had these things happen,\u201d Moorer says. \u201cI try to figure them out, and figure out how to make the best of it. It\u2019s a wonderful gift, to make art out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new record didn\u2019t come quickly. The songs were written over a period of several years, with no particular plan for an album. \u201cThe first song I wrote that ended up on the record was \u2018Blood,\u2019 which I wrote almost four years ago. I was pregnant and trying to figure out how I was going to work and be a parent. I didn\u2019t know what the balance would be\u2014and I still don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve written a ton of songs over the past few years. But it wasn\u2019t until I did a bunch of demos of songs that eventually ended up on the record\u2014\u2018I Lost My Crystal Ball,\u2019 \u2018Down to Believing\u2019 and \u2018If I Were Stronger\u2019\u2014that I realized I had the makings of an album. I\u2019d never just thrown a bunch of songs together and made an album\u2014I don\u2019t work that way. They need to be saying something. So I had to give thought to what that would be. Once I figured it out, I pulled out some other songs I had lying around that I knew would fit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moorer turned to Kenny Greenberg\u2014who had produced her first two albums\u2014to helm the project. \u201cI called in Kenny because he\u2019s great in the studio, such a wonderful guitarist and he gets things done really quickly. When you don\u2019t have a big budget you need that,\u201d she says. \u201cWorking with Kenny put me in a really safe spot. To have him at the helm made me feel it was OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ALLISON MOORER On a new studio set, the acclaimed roots artist mines pain for poetry\u00a0 Five years ago, as Allison Moorer released her seventh studio album, Crows, she was married to singer-songwriter Steve Earle and pregnant with their son. Now, as she releases her latest, Down to Believing, much has changed. Her near-decade-long marriage to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[181,7623],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14760,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14758\/revisions\/14760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}