ALLISON MOORER

Blood

AUTOTELIC / THIRTY TIGERS 8/10

Moving folk-blues document of a troubled life

A companion piece to her just-published autobiography Blood: A Memoir, Moorer’s first solo album in four years is a sometimes harrowing experience, she and sister Shelby Lynne playing witness to the murder/suicide of their parents in ’80s Alabama on “Cold Cold Earth” and addressing their mother’s fortitude in the face of poverty and spousal abuse on “The Rock And The Hill”. Yet Blood is essentially as concerned with recovery and strength as it is trauma, the simple folk arrangements foregrounding Moorer’s richly emotive voice. It ends with the piano-led “Heal”, its sentiment born more of faith than expectation.