Allison Moorer Is Newest Writer for the Country Music Hall of Fame
Award winning singer, songwriter, and performer Allison Moorer is the newest employee of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Moorer is joining the nonprofit institution as a Writer-Editor in the Museum Services department.
Though most know the Mobile, Alabama native for her ten studio albums, including recording for MCA Nashville, Universal South, and Sugar Hill, she is also the author of two books, and has published articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, American Songwriter, Guernica, No Depression, Literary Hub and The Bitter Southerner.
Writer-Editors for the Hall of Fame contribute to exhibitions, museum publications, public programs, online offerings, social media channels and other educational initiatives that interpret and illuminate the genre, and explore the broad and ever-evolving narratives of its history and its contributions to culture.
Moorer has Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing from The New School, and received the Hall-Waters Prize for Excellence in Southern Writing in 2020 and the Alabama Library Association’s Authors Award in 2022.
She has often used her own life experiences as the inspiration for her writing. When Moorer was 14, her father shot and killed her mother before committing suicide. This resulted in the 2019 album and memoir Blood. In 2010, Moorer gave birth to her autistic son, John Henry Earle. Her 2021 book I Dream He Talks to Me: A Memoir of Learning How to Listen is about her experience raising an autistic child.
Along with writing many of her own songs, Allison Moorer has also been covered by Miranda Lambert, Trisha Yearwood, Kenny Chesney, ex-husband Steve Earle, and current husband Hayes Carll. Moorer has also worked as a producer. Her sister is singer and songwriter Shelby Lynne.
Allison Moorer was nominated for the ACM’s Top New Female Vocalist in 1998 after releasing her debut album Alabama Song. In 2004, she was also nominated for the Americana Music Association’s Artist of the Year. Her song “A Soft Place To Fall” also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, and “Days Aren’t Long Enough” received a Grammy Nomination for Best Country Collaboration in 2008.
Despite the critical acclaim and peer recognition, Allison Moorer failed to find the commercial acceptance of the country mainstream. Later in her career she was embraced by the Americana community, and has released a number of collaborative albums.
Also joining the Country Music Hall of Fame as a Writer-Editor is Jon Freeman, formerly of Rolling Stone Country. The Hall of Fame’s writing department is also where the late country writer and performer Peter Cooper was employed before passing away in 2022.
May 9, 2024 @ 6:10 pm
Fabulous artist, painter, commuicator, mother and person. The hall couln’t be luckier.
May 9, 2024 @ 6:50 pm
I’ve been a fan of Allison Moorer since her first album “Alabama Song” in 1998. I’ve seen her in many concerts at small venues in the WASHDC area and in Nashville. Allison’s “Blood” tour was a mesmerizing mix of her reading excerpts from her autobiography and playing songs from the same titled album associated with various chapters of the book. She is a top notch songwriter with a beautiful voice. Her Substack blogs and weekly Sunday Lists are intriguing, entertaining and informative. She is a multi-talented, super creative person who also dabbles in painting and drawings.
Joining the staff at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is another feather in her cap. Allison will be a spark plug for the team. I look forward to her contributions and activities.
May 11, 2024 @ 9:25 pm
For me it was The Horse Whisperer soundtrack. I was in high school and had little exposure to the best of country from that era, but I loved that CD.
May 12, 2024 @ 6:46 pm
That’s where I first encountered her voice and writing. “A Soft Place to Fall” blew me away. I’ve been a fan ever since.
May 9, 2024 @ 7:28 pm
It’s interesting that Allison and Shelby have both suddenly become more active with Mainstream country institutions/labels.
Would be great to see them cement the next part of their legacy with more eyes on them.
May 9, 2024 @ 7:53 pm
I too became a big fan of Allison back when Alabama Song was released in 1998 with some of the most “authentic country” new songs I’d heard in years. Back then she would participate on her online Fan Forum along with her first husband Doyle “Butch” Primm, who co-wrote songs with her at the time, which was a blast. Her song “Long Black Train” summarizes her first encounter with the Big Label Music Row Nashville Music Machine process.
Early in her career Allison became good friends with Lonesome Bob and other talented non-mainstream singer-songwriter artists at an apartment building they all lived in in East Nashville they nicknamed “Coolsville”. What a time that must have been, sort of like a Nashville version of the LA “Laurel Canyon Scene” in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. I’m glad to see she is finally getting more of the recognition she has always deserved for her immense talent.
May 10, 2024 @ 5:52 am
We oughta have a cup uh Joe sometime
May 10, 2024 @ 7:04 am
Sure seems like a very good choice. I thought Blood was just an excellent book and one of the best memoirs from a music artist that I’ve read. Right up there with Just Us Kids by Patti Smith.
May 10, 2024 @ 7:07 am
Correction: Just Kids by Patti Smith, not Just Us Kids (song and album by James McMurtry).
May 10, 2024 @ 9:25 am
well deserved.
May 10, 2024 @ 2:26 pm
Out of curiosity is this a full time job? No shade at all. I don’t know and am curious. Either way, she’ll do great I’m sure.
May 11, 2024 @ 12:19 pm
@DYK–Actually, it is a “full-time” job–though she may continue to make and record of her own. Per an interview/article in Variety, she ceased regular touring when her son, with special needs, was born (14 some years ago) and is not keen on touring as a middle age/older woman at her (non-star) level.
I”ll go out on a limb and make a prediction. This job is something of a stepping stone . If Allison Moore is still with the H-o-F in 5 years, she’ll be an officer and in line to be its president. She’ll have all the credentials, plus a compelling life story that no one would want to match.
May 10, 2024 @ 2:58 pm
Blood is my favorite country/roots album of the previous decade. Allison Moorer is a dynamite diamond dynamo for converting personal pain and struggle into musical redemption.