"My Dad Murdered My Mom".(Brief Article)

Country singer Allison Moorer was a teen when her world was torn apart by family violence. Now she tells how she turned her torment into powerful music.

* Twenty-eight-year-old Allison Moorer has all the stereotypical attributes of a successful country singer. The blue-eyed strawberry blond grew up in a tiny Southern town (Frankville, Alabama), has an angelic voice, and has endured a heartbreaking family tragedy.

When Allison was 14, her hard-drinking father, despondent about his wife having left him, shot and killed her mother and then turned the gun on himself. It's an event that both Allison and her sister; the equally successful country singer Shelby Lynne, have been reluctant to talk about. But on her new album, The Hardest Part, which she cowrote with her husband, Doyle "Butch" Primm, Moorer included a gripping ballad about the night her parents died. Here, she shares the story and talks about how she's been able to transform her personal sadness into powerful songs and an unstoppable career.

The Early Years

For as long as I can remember, music has always been apart of my life. Singing and playing instruments were things that came very naturally in my family--we. lived in such a rural area that we didn't have much else to do. My parents liked traditional country music, so I grew up listening to great artists like Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash. My grandmother tells me that I started harmonizing at age 3.

My father was a frustrated musician-- one with a lot more desire than talent. When we were kids, he'd take us to the local fiddlers' conventions, where we would ...