When she was younger, Allison Moorer used to believe that she wanted an intellectual existence, a life of the mind. But now, at 42, she sighs, “What I’ve realized that I have is a life of the hands—I’m always just making something, or I’m writing or drawing something, because it makes me feel connected; it makes me feel real. It’s the same way with music—I just want to make it.” Hence, her latest ambitious set, Down To Believing, which documents her recent split from her husband, Steve Earle, and even the motherly guilt she felt when their son John Henry, now four, was diagnosed with autism two years ago. Moorer will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on her.
Moorer: My sister, my memory, my musical home, part of my heart, Shelby is a true original of a human being. She was born to suit herself, as she says. She is also one of the best singers on the planet. If you haven’t heard her, or only kind of know her, do yourself a favor and right that as soon as you can. I said to someone once that she sings like she’s been doing it by herself in a cave somewhere all of her life—no pretense, no service of anything but the song and what she feels. She somehow makes what she feels what you feel, too, even if you didn’t know you felt it before she let you in on it. That’s what an artist does. They show you. And to have that ability is a gift beyond my limited powers of explanation.
