Mockingbird - Dark Publications

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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).

Customer Reviews: Read 69 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Not mockery -- reinterpretation and homage., January 23, 2008
29 out of 36 found this review helpful

Steve Earle's missus and Shelby Lynne's kid sister has never quite made the first rank of stardom, despite an Oscar nomination (A Soft Place to Fall from The Horse Whisperer). With this cleverly-titled set of covers, she demonstrates a vocal maturity and interpretive sensitivity which could do the trick. But it is not a complete success. The mixing is often very good but sometimes overwhelms the vocal. There is no doubting her vocal skills, but she deserves better production values.

The opening, self-penned title track is, ironically enough, the weakest. The tune is slight, the seventies-style keyboard arrangement is rather trite, and the whole mix is too smooth by half.

Ring Of Fire becomes a slow, rock-me-gentle anthem, bringing out the smoldering romanticism of the June Carter Cash classic. The effect is quite magical, but some fans of the song may need to listen to this version a few times to tune into it. It's worth it.

Dancing Barefoot is one of the more up-tempo tracks, but perhaps a little too subdued to inspire you with the need to dance, barefoot or otherwise. There's no doubting her vocal skills here, though.

I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl is Blues with a swing -- smooth and easy Blues, without the edge and earthiness. Some listeners will enjoy it, others will prefer their sugar less refined.

Go, Leave has some beautiful orchestration and a delicate, melodic lilt that repays repeated listening.

Revelator is good, but the style is exactly that of Gillian Welch's original, but lacking the brilliance in the guitar accompaniment. So the comparison is negative, even though Moorer sings it well. If a cover simply makes you want to go back to the original, it has surely failed.

I really wanted to enjoy her interpretation of the Joni Mitchell standard Both Sides Now, but I found it frustrating. The melodic thread of the song is so strong, it needs full rein. But Moorer restrains it, trying to add soulfulness, but losing the lyricism.

Daddy, Goodbye Blues boasts a fine Blues guitar backing and a mix that attempts an authentic Delta sound, with a live performance feel. For me, it didn't quite work. The drum beat is too solid and monotonous, becoming intrusive rather than supportive, and the vocals tend to get overwhelmed by both strings and percussion.

She Knows Where She Goes is much more successful, simply because it allows her voice to be heard. There are shades of Sandy Denny in the mournful beauty of the singing.

Orphan Train is a gem -- a beautiful, folksy Gospel performance that does full justice to this classic. Here, Moorer's voice is allowed to weave its spell.

Where Is My Love also succeeds, again because it leaves the singer's voice to do the work and carry the message.

I'm Looking For Blue Eyes gives her voice full range, and leaves you thinking she could extend herself even more. The guitar coda on this track is very effective, and is a nice signing-off to the album.

This is a CD to add to your collection for when you are in a soulful mood, when you need a sweet voice to take you away from the everyday and bring you home to your heart.

4 out of 5 stars

Allison Moorer's "Mockingbird" - Gets Better with Each Listen March 18, 2008
20 out of 21 found this review helpful

Mockingbird

This new album from Allison Moorer has continued to grow on me. The overall result is a well-delivered and interesting mix of very good songs. The more times I hear it, the better it sounds.

The first few times around a few tracks overpowered the album. Yet the last four tracks were so strong, I decided to listen to it again a few times. I put on my trusty headset to really focus in on the music. Sure enough, I heard a lot of great elements I had missed.

Ms. Moorer's musical pedigree has been well touted in her bio. When you've been nominated for a Grammy award on a major record label, people do tend to take notice. Perhaps the excessive hype hurt my expectations, especially when she's described as a "technically gifted vocalist."

I'm sure the number crunchers decided that by adding some well-known covers they could be sure her songs would get played at Gap stores and restaurants everywhere. By and large they've succeeded. Those songs will get this record played, though they are not my favorite parts of this album.

Her take on "Both Sides Now" has a tighter musical arrangement and seems more suited to her voice than the other remakes. "Ring of Fire," "I Want a Little Sugar In My Bowl," and "Daddy Goodbye Blues" have each grown on me but could have all been improved.

"Ring of Fire" as done here highlights a subtle recording choice. The vocals were clearly not leveled. You can hear her as she gyrates closer and further from the microphone. This seems to have been intentional, as recording engineers love to give songs that "live" recorded feel. The vocal overlays seem to be fighting against the instrumentals on this song. The sound engineers seem to have magnified this too for effect. You have to improve more upon the original when you're putting your name on a song. I'm still not crazy about the musical arrangement on this track, convinced it sounds too much like the Christmas classic "The Little Drummer Boy." Yet I've grown to appreciate her take on the song more.

Both "I Want a Little Sugar In My Bowl" and "Daddy Goodbye Blues" have a blues treatment that was off-putting at first but sounded better on subsequent listens. As a huge Nina Simone Anthology fan, I'm probably in a very hard-to-please group. I didn't mind the hollow recording on "Daddy Goodbye Blues" as much as some others. In the end these two tracks, though nice, seem misplaced here.

My favorite tracks are 1, 3, and 9-12. "Mockingbird," "She Knows Where She Goes," "Where is My Love" and "I'm Looking for Blue Eyes" are all beautiful smooth ballads. Each song has a nice mix of folk and country that lends to a recognizable sound. And "Orphan Train" really stands out as well. They really showcase Allison Moorer at her best here.

I liked her broad genre treatment, which reminded me of several Lyle Lovett albums I love. "Dancing Barefoot" and "Revelator" each have more of an upbeat alternative rock feel with hints of folk. Those songs showcase the best crossover appeal of this album.

No doubt "Ring of Fire" will get notice in these remake obsessed times. Yet there is so much more on this album that is interesting and compelling.

For fans of:

Trisha Yearwood Love Songs
Corinne Bailey Rae Corinne Bailey Rae
Joni Mitchell Shine
Judy Collins Wildflowers
Nora Jones Come Away with Me
Lyle Lovett It's Not Big It's Large
Emmylou Harris The Very Best of Emmylou Harris: Heartaches and Highways
KT Tunstall Eye to the Telescope

Enjoy.

2 out of 5 stars

...surprisingly uneventful and unremarkable... January 25, 2008
18 out of 29 found this review helpful

...I don't think anyone will argue that Moorer is a gifted vocalist: brassy, bold, and soulful in an old-school kinda way -- like some curious meeting-point between Tammy Wynette, Irma Thomas, and Janis Joplin. That said, her artistic momentum seems a bit stymied at the moment. Her last album was a very middling collection of uninspired originals, blandly produced by hubby Steve Earle. Anonymous sounding stuff, really, with the vocals cranked up ridiculously high in the mix.

So, how does one follow that? Here we have a collection of covers produced (and mixed) by Buddy Miller. Not a bad idea: with proven material and a wise producer, Moorer can consolidate her strengths, explore the musical crossroads that define her, and re-establish herself a little bit. Miller should be a sympathetic partner -- after all, check out his work on the mostly-covers Jimmie Dale Gilmore disk "One Endless Night": murky, luminous, and thoroughly radiant.

Well, consider "Mockingbird" is a blown opportunity. Most of the choices are profoundly uninteresting...Miller's production is one of his least interesting and most generic, from the cheesy sax of the opening title track. Moorer has a hand in it too -- her vocals are full-on, with little sensitivity or insight. Compare the McGarrigles' original of "Go, Leave" (hushed, resigned, vulnerable) with Moorer's take on it for a lesson in interpretive nuance. Moorer is by far the more talented vocalist, but sometimes it's not how you hit the notes -- it's how you tell the story...one could come to the same conclusion by listening to Gillian Welch's version of "Revalator," also covered here. By the time the album winds down, I was pretty over-blustered...

Cover albums are dangerous ground. In order to release the songs from their formidable pasts, artists need to take substantial risks and open oneself up..."Mockingbird" doesn't feel risky or personal -- it feels almost like Moorer is hiding behind these songs, rather than investing herself in them.

...postscript: while I know Moorer and her sister Shelby Lynne do not like to comment on their respective careers, I can't help but notice the parallel trajectories: both enjoying modest initial success in country music before falling out with the genre, then experiencing some notoriety in the stillborn Americana format (stillborn in the sense that the radio format that was supposed to propel the genre into American homes basically flopped -- it is an artistically fertile genre of music). After a few promising but aimless albums, they are now both trying to hang on by releasing rather uninteresting collections of other peoples' material. Hmmm...

3 out of 5 stars

Good background music, but lacks charisma and mood variance March 20, 2008
15 out of 17 found this review helpful

I love music. Like reading, I can't imagine going a day without listening to music. That's exactly why I invested years ago in an iPod that can hold my entire music collection, and why I upgraded to a newer iPod this year as my old one was ready for retirement.

I enjoy a wide range of musical genres - country, folk, rock, pop, Disney, rap, jazz. Really, there is no limit for me regarding genre. What I like in my music collection is a song that moves me to some emotion, whether joyous or sad, and has a pleasing, catchy rhythm. Even more, I love it when that song tells a story. And, of course, I like the vocals to be engaging, with the appropriate tone and passion in the singer's voice.

When Amazon.com offered Allison Moorer's CD MOCKINGBIRD for review to its Vine members, I listened to some clips from the CD online and then decided I liked what I heard enough to give it a fair review. As we all know, however, clips that last a few seconds only give a very general idea, but cannot express the overall mood of the CD or the talent of the singer and musicians. I could tell from the clips that I didn't hate the CD. That's a good start.

When I received the CD, I ripped it to MP3 files so I could import them to my iPod and listen to them whenever and wherever I could, intending to give the album several days of play time before writing a review for it. Technology was with me, and I set my iPod to play only songs from the MOCKINGBIRD CD for a few days.

I soon found that I had trouble paying attention to the songs as they played. While they had a good sound, they just didn't grab me, serving better as background music that offers no distraction. Ms. Moorer's vocal skills are competent, but failed to be charismatic. In addition, she sang every song on this CD in the same tone, the same mood. Indeed, I began to believe that she herself was bored with this CD while recording it. Although there are some very good songs on this album (including cover songs like RING OF FIRE), the lack of variance in mood dampens their allure, making each song sound much like the next track.

Amazon.com has this CD categorized MOCKINGBIRD in the Folk genre, but as I listened I was struck more with a bluesy-country feeling. Not a bad genre, and with some addition work and guidance, I expect Ms. Moorer could one day record an album I find much more interesting than this one.

3 out of 5 stars

Wait, When did Allison Moorer become Average?? February 3, 2008
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

In 2000 if you had asked me who my favorite country singer was, I would have answered unequivicably Allison Moorer. By 2002 or 2003 you had other artists coming into their own, but she still would have been right there in the top 5. Now she is just a country singer I like, but when I am pressed for a certain few artists I would recommend, I generally don't remember her. This is not good because she is one of the best singers in the business, but lately she seems to be relying on that voice to cover a lot of really ugly musical choices. This album, much like Misfortune, has a few brilliant moments, a few really awful ones and a whole lot of really forgettable ones. Both Sides Now could have been a good tune but for Allison's seeming desire to push her voice up into a reedy soprano, which never quite worked. On the other hand, when she settles into the burnished beauty of I'm Looking For Blue Eyes she is as haunting as ever. Dancing Barefoot drives along with the momentum of the guitair and Allison just pretty much rides the waves. And that is the problem with so much of this album--its just coasting.
Allison has long seemed more aware than her counterparts of her lack of commerical sucess and more bothered by that, and one has to wonder if it is taking a toll. Her last two albums have seemed almost ditzily unfocused, almost like an attempt to throw all the pasta at the wall to see what sticks. Getting Somewhere worked out okay because it fell into a bit of a dead space. However, with her sisters lovely reworkings of Dusty Springfield just out and new albums from Tift Merritt and Kathleen Edwards hot on her heels, this album could quite easily get overlooked in the shuffle.

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