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ALISON MOORER
Getting Somewhere Sugar Hill ***

Alison Moorer is back on the case for this, her first album since she became Mrs Steve Earle, after a dodgy period where this very fine singer had lost her way. Her new husband co-produces with her and also enlists the core of his band to help out. She writes the songs, which vary from the excellent, Beatles-ish opener Work To Do to the Dylan-ish closer Getting Somewhere. In between she confronts the demons of her childhood in New Year's Day (her father shot her mother and then killed himself), offers an olive branch to her estranged sister, the singer Shelby Lynne, on Where You Are, and proclaims her love on If It's Just for Today. And yes, there is a touch of the psychiatrist's couch about the album and the songs could be better, but this is a woman with a smile on her face at the end. And that can't be bad. www.alisonmooorer.com  Joe Breen