First Published in Country Music International – January 1999

Allison Moorer Picks Her Favourite Sounds For The Long Road Ahead …

“I started working on the road when I was singing back-up with my sister, Shelby Lynne. We were mainly playing clubs, and for a time we were opening for Vince Gill. Shelby had a lot of support from her record company at that time and had her own bus. I really loved being out there on the road, I wouldn't be anywhere else.

The thing I liked most about the road is that you are out there for one specific reason: you are out there to promote your music. You are not at home dealing with the phone and business. You don't have to stop and do mundane things like go to the grocery store. You are able to stay much closer to the music. My husband Butch and I, we eat and sleep and play music.

I never really wanted a solo career until about five years ago. I saw how unhappy Shelby was at times and being that close to somebody who was in the business, the way Shelby handled it, I kind of thought it wasn't the best kind of life. Then I met Butch, and he made me realise that it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to be miserable. There are all kind of different people who make a living doing music and they really have a lot of fun.

Working as a musician, making a living in music, you don’t have to be on top of the charts to do that. He introduced me to a lot of different people like Dave Alvin and Buddy Miller, who are able to do their music without all the trappings. He set me free and made me feel able to do what I want to with my music without all the pressures and trappings.

I grew up listening to singers like Merle and Buck and Tammy, real traditional country music, and you just don’t hear a lot of that in mainstream country these days. I think a lot of people who are considered to be on the left, kind of things are really on the right. What they call alternative country is really ‘real country,’ and what they call country is not. That drives me real crazy.

WANTED: THE OUTLAWS by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Tompall Glaser and Jessi Colter, is an album that was played a lot in my house when I was a kid and was a big influence on me. It’s one of those records that is just timeless and I never get tired of listening to it. I grew up listening to a lot of Emmylou Harris and BLUE KENTUCKY GIRL made a big impression with me. She really hit upon something that was so country, and yet so cool. I really love that album. In fact, I love all her albums, even WRECKING BALL. I think it’s one of the best things she could possibly have done at that time.

I’m a big Gram Parsons fan and he was involved with The Byrds at the time of SWEETHEART OF THE RODEO. That album sort of spawned the whole country-rock thing, so it is a really important record. THE BEST OF THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS is another record that I simply cannot live without. Gram had such a spirit about him, and then there was Chris Hillman working with him, as well. He is such an underrated singer, musician and songwriter.

When my sister and I were growing up we listened to Tammy Wynette's records a lot. They were always being played in the house. We always thought, though, that her songs were a little bit too mature for us to be singing. She was such a great writer and emotional singer, and the song that always blows me away is Apartment No.9, which was written by Johnny Paycheck. I have an album that CBS put out several years ago called TWENTY YEARS OF HITS, and it has all her great songs on it. I can't live without that one.

When I was 14 I went to live with my aunt in Monroeville Alabama. I was very much into bands like REM, The Smithereeens, 10,000 Maniacs and stuff like that, kind of alternative rock. REM did an album, DEAD LETTER OFFICE, where they did a Velvet Underground song called Pale Blue Eyes. I thought it was one of the countriest things I'd ever heard, and it made me think that being country was cool. It's a little bit like Gillian Welch's REVIVAL. I discovered her a couple of years ago, right after that album came out and thought she was so great. I think she's an incredible writer and I love her style of singing. She and Dave Rawlings are something real special.

Willie Nelson's RED HEADED STRANGER is such a great concept record that is quite incredible. I just recently bought PHASES AND STAGES, which in a way set the path for RED HEADED STRANGER. Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain has always been one of my all-time favourite records. I think what he did on that record was so cool and really broke ground, because he did it at a time when there wasn't a whole lot of acoustic music going on.

I have to have an album by Merle Haggard. I can't pick out any one, but would probably go for the older stuff like Swinging Doors, Branded Man and Sing Me Back Home. There was a box set a couple of years ago, I think it was called DOWN EVERY ROAD. That has all those hits on it, but he's written and sung so many great songs the list would be endless. What a singer! What a writer! Merle is just incredible.

I can't go too far without a Buck Owens record as well. I can never pick which one of his albums to take with me, so again it would have to be the box set that Rhino put out a few years ago. What a renegade he was; he had his own band, did his own thing and was just so incredible. A more recent album I play a lot is THIS TIME by Dwight Yoakman. In a way, Dwight has continued what Buck and Merle started. He is a great singer and I really appreciate that he is such an individual. He doesn't really pay attention to trends or what is happening on Music Row. He stays out in California and just says that he doesn't care for what Nashville is doing.

I like that kind of renegade approach. The only way to hang in there and make a difference, if you are going to do art of any kind, is to do your own thing. What is the point of being a follower?”