Allison Moorer will release her first new solo album since 2015s Down to Believin this fall. Titled Blood, the LP, out October 25th, will be followed four days later by the release of Moorers memoir of the same name, published by Da Capo Press. Moorers most recent recording project was 2017s Not Dark Yet, a collaboration with her older sister, Shelby Lynne.
The first track issued from Blood is The Rock and the Hill, a visceral blues rocker that ties itself lyrically to the protective, deep-rooted character of Moorers and Lynnes mother, who was murdered by their father before he took his own life in 1986. Just as Blood: A Memoir reveals details of Moorers troubled home life in southern Alabama, as well as the bond with her sister and the music that cut through their difficult circumstances, each track on the companion album shares a connection to the intensely personal stories Moorer relates in the book. Perhaps no cut on the record is more chilling than Im the One to Blame, recorded with just Moorers raw vocal and acoustic guitar. The unfinished lyrics to the song were first discovered by Lynne in their fathers briefcase shortly after the deaths of their parents. Lynne later wrote the music for it.
In 2017, Moorer, who married boyfriend Hayes Carll in May 2019, told Rolling Stone Country that before she turned her memoir manuscript over to the publisher, she had Carll read it. [He] said to me, Its so enlightening for me to read this because I understand your relationship with your sister so much better. There are sibling bonds and theres that. Were bonded in more than that way. We share the same parents; we grew up in the same house. We also have a deep trauma bond. Its almost like soldiers who were in the same company, whove been through a war.
Blood will be issued on Autotelic Records/Thirty Tigers on October 25th, with Blood: A Memoir, to follow on October 29th through Da Capo Press, an imprint of Hachette Books.