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| | Miss Fortune | | | Music Artist : | | Allison Moorer | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | Universal South | | Release Date : | | 2002-08-06 | | Store Price : | | $13.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $13.98 | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Tumbling Down
2. Cold In California
3. Let Go
4. Ruby Jewel Was Here
5. Can't Get There From Here
6. Steal The Sun
7. Up This High
8. Hey Jezebel
9. Mark My Word
10. No Place For A Heart
11. Yessirree
12. Going Down
13. Dying Breed
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 Eclectic Nashville soul, good rainy day music
Submitted on: 2008-09-27 |
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That is, if you like your music to match your weather. Moorer has a right to sing the blues, as they say, and she's good at it. She has a strong, lovely alto that, save for the Southern accent, would have served her just as well at Motown as in Nashville. She sings with much feeling, without exaggeration. Her voice resonates especially well in her lower register, which these songs cater to. The music varies from country pop to soul to rock (see below for a little more detail on that). As Moorer says at her website, "listen to it just for the music ... don't worry about what bin it's gonna go in at the record store."
The songs here tend toward the sad, lonely, heartbroken and heartbreaking. Moorer and then-husband/co-writer Doyle "Butch" Primm must have gone through more than their share of personal demons in writing four albums together (this was the third), and they imagined some if they ran out of their own. The song writing is strong. Moorer hasn't talked much about how she and Primm wrote their songs, and it seems Primm hasn't talked at all, but it appears from what little has been said that he was the stronger one on lyrics while she often did more on the musical side, and that he pushed them both to a high standard. Some consider their work together her best; others see her more recent work as even better. Not having heard her more recent work yet (it's on my list), all I can say is that this is very good.
One of many memorable pieces is "Ruby Jewel Was Here," a vivid (made-up) story of a 12-year old girl born and raised in a brothel who leaves her small mark on the world after killing her rapist. The song has the feel of an old Bobbie Gentry or Dusty Springfield ballad, honky tonk style, with shades of Memphis and New Orleans. Moorer sings it with a vigor that suggests strength, which we might associate with the tragic heroine.
Another standout is "Dying Breed," a song about a family addiction to drugs. While probably not entirely autobiographical, it has echoes of Moorer's own family history, and maybe apprehensions about its future. "I take after my family / My fate's the blood in me / No one grows old in this household / We are a dying breed." The song has a jaunty, loping Weill-like tune that belies its darkness, though its irony is thankfully less coarse and flamboyant than a typical Weill song. It sticks with you. (Moorer actually gave up alcohol a couple years after this album.)
There's a variety of songs, not all dark, and a variety of arrangements. There's slow pop soul twang with strings and chorus ("Tumbling Down"), lonely Beatle-ish pop with horns and a sort of weepy George Harrison guitar ("Cold in California"), heartbroken with pretty acoustic guitar and airy chorus ("Let Go"), jangle-twangy mid-tempo resignation ("Can't Get There from Here"), a slow love song with strings, almost a soul power ballad, that sounds sad somehow ("Steal the Sun"), a mid-tempo love song with electric organ with Carpenters harmonies at the end ("Up This High"), more organ and a couple rock guitars on a defiant leave-my-man-aloner ("Hey Jezebel"), acoustic guitar and string quartet lamenting that love won't last ("Mark My Word"), a wish-I-weren't-in-love song with a classic soul vocal ("No Place for a Heart"), a downbeat paean to a drinking establishment with more organ ("Yessirree"), and a "Gimme Shelter"-ish rocker that Moorer handles with relish ("Going Down")--she can belt it out. (Her vocal is just a little recessed in the mix on that last one, unfortunately.)
In sum, a fine voice with fine songs in varied arrangements. Four and a half stars, rounded up. |
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 Allison Moorer / Miss Fortune
Submitted on: 2008-03-08 |
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| This is a hard one to comment on, I like her style, but some of her songs are strange. She sings, easy listening, twangy country, rock, alternative and off the wall on this Cd. I'd say, "Listen to the previews before considering this one". It's a love/hate Cd. |
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This is the Allison Moorer I will think of
Submitted on: 2007-08-22 |
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| When I think of Allison Moorer, her work on this album is what I will always think of. Attracted by a label when we bought it that said, "Moorer's voice has not been altered in any way in the studio" or something to that effect, we thought it was worth a try. It's gusto stuff, and it put Britney Spears to shame years before they put themselves to shame. |
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Change of Direction, still mostly on course
Submitted on: 2007-07-19 |
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| Alison Moorer takes a different tack in this album, her third album. It's not classifiable as country, as where her first 2 albums. This album has a jazz flavor in much of it, particularly soft jazz. As a whole, the album is much softer, gentler, and acoustic than her previous work. There is quite a bit of piano. The songs are slower and more reflective, kind of like a lingering thought process discussed in the lyrics and reflected by the tempo. However, Ruby Jewel is a sassy song and Going Down is very spirited. Dying Breed is a moving discussion of a family with a history of short lifespans due to substance abuse. I don't like this album as much as Alison's first 2, but don't worry, it's still worthy. Further, it grows on the listener. So if you buy it, give it a chance. |
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A Touch of Yearning in the Soul of Us All
Submitted on: 2006-07-18 |
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I didn't pay much attention when my daughter initially gave me Alison Moorer's "Miss Fortune" CD. When I first played it, it did not particularly grab me, but on replaying it recently I was struck by several terrific songs. There is such a touch of yearning in her voice as she seeks to "Steal the Sun," a ballad about a perfect night of love and desire that everyone has experienced at sometime in their lives and how she wants it to never end. This is a signature song and worth the price of the CD. Moorer's sense of lost love, another emotion than everyone can appreciate at some level, found in "Cold in California," "Can't Get There From Here," "No Place For A Heart," and "Mark My Word" evoke strong empathies. And her cautionary tale of substance abuse, "Dying Breed," recalls difficult situations I have experienced with friends. Perhaps I'm sentimental, but I'm not sure that's an altogether bad thing. It's far better than the alternative.
There are some of the songs that I didn't especially care for--"Ruby Jewel Was Here," and "Hey Jezebel" come to mind--since they reminded me of Saturday nights in Honky Tonks, but overall this is a very fine album that captures a soul. |
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