Allison Moorer has always spoken through her music, like countless other singer-songwriters. The stories woven into the life story of the Alabama-born country music songstress, though, bear scars that go deeper than most, and memories which never depart. Allison Moorer understands that the only way out of hell is through it, even as a very young child. In her new memoir, “Blood,” the Country Music artist, with ten albums to her credit, and younger sister to Grammy winner, Shelby Lynne, chronicles the love, the fear, the family tragedy, and finally, the journey to forgiveness shared by the siblings.

Moorer spoke with Anthony Mason, of “CBS This Morning,” for her only televised interview regarding the book, on October 29.

The brutal but necessary history

Autopsy reports are not something that most daughters would ever look forward to receiving, but Allison Moorer points out the envelopes in her departed father’s briefcase, remembering when she sent the request for the information.

“What I'm really trying to do is forgive,” Allison insists, and she knows now that she is ready and able to grant that blessing, and know its freedom. Part of her mission, through the testament of the pages in “Blood,” is to prove to herself and others that she and her sister weren’t “ruined by it all,” relating the ordeal of the murder-suicide that took both their parents, and changed their perspectives on life forever.

Photos fill the walls of Allison Moorer’s home, reflecting both “terror” and the comfort of nostalgia. Music was embedded from birth into Allison and Shelby Lynne, and so was a prayer that Allison repeated over and over each night,

“God, please don't let Daddy hurt Mama,” Moorer vividly recites. Franklin Moorer seemed to be a doting dad, in portraits but possessed a mean streak and a drinking problem that overtook his virtues.

One day, when Allison fell from a horse she was riding with Shelby, the father struck his eldest daughter with a blow to the face, blaming her for the normal childhood accident.

Like millions of other abused sons and daughters, Moorer questions how she's supposed to feel like she's "worth anything” after beatings that become almost routine from a father.

Lynn (Laura Lynn) Moorer left Franklin Moorer with her teenage daughters in 1986 but, on August 12 of that year, the greatest horror imaginable happened. Allison Moorer woke to the gunshots, as her father shot their mother, and then himself. Shelby was standing in the front yard amidst the scene. The beatings stopped, but not the overwhelming hurt.

Love and little boys

“The tragedy colors everything,” confesses Moorer, making the good moments “a bit bittersweet.” Still, there are gifts that Allison Moorer and her sister take with them. “She never, ever let me believe that I was not loved,” assures the singer, who still has the early recordings of mother and daughters singing together. “She is the reason that I'm okay.

She is the reason my sister is okay.”

Walking their road as “not belonging to anyone in this world” has not been easy for Allison and Shelby Lynne. “We've always belonged to each other,” Moorer confirms.

Both artists have achieved more than musical success. Moorer first signed with MCA Nashville in 1997, and her song, “A Soft Place to Fall,” was featured in Robert Redford's “The Horse Whisperer.” The song was nominated for an Oscar as Best Song, and Allison Moorer performed the song she co-wrote Gwil Owen on the 1999 Academy Awards broadcast. Moorer is also known for her recording of “Picture” for the radio version with Kid Rock. Many fans feel that Allison outshines the Sheryl Crow rendition.

Her album, “Nightlight,” released this year, serves as a musical accompaniment to her memoir.

Shelby Lynne’s self-titled 1999 debut album earned the artist a Grammy as Best New Artist and she followed up with an ACM award for New Female Vocalist of the Year. Performances have never stopped for Lynne, who founded her own record label, Everso, and recorded the album “Tears, Lies, and Alibis” along with two more. The older sister is highly sought after for her contralto voice and has been featured with a myriad of country superstars in addition to her solo success. When the sisters sing together, family harmony is unmistakable.

Life can bring lessons in the most unexpected ways. The birth of Allison Moorer's son, John Henry, brought an overwhelming joy and healing which the songwriter could never have imagined.

“Time, investigation, willingness and having a little boy,” brought Allison to a point of “nothing but love” for her father. Getting to that juncture is difficult to explain, but experiencing her own motherly joys of boyhood somehow helped her to understand that her father, too, was once a little boy, who never sought to be remembered as a murderer.

John Henry is autistic and Allison Moorer knows that she will have to explain the story of his grandparents one day. She can only immerse him in love for now and describe that grandma and grandpa were “troubled and beautiful like we all are.”
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