This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Just in case you didn’t know, country crooner Allison Moorer is little sister of Grammy-winning singer Shelby Lynne. Thankfully, though, unlike her older sis did on her last record, Moorer hasn’t completely sold out her talent for a shot at stardom.
Miss Fortune, her debut offering for Universal’s southern division, carries on in the soulful country-pop vein that Moorer mined on her 2000 album The Hardest Part. True to its title, this disc finds Moorer applying her husky, sensual pipes to a slate of dark acoustic ballads and countripolitan weepers that rekindle the flame of Bobbie Gentry and Dusty in Memphis — except when the presence of ex-Wilco guitarist Jay Bennett in the backing band makes these tracks sound more like The Band (as on the rustic Ruby Jewel Was Here) or The Rolling Stones (like on the rocky Going Down) than a bunch of slick Nashville session cats. Tack on the Kurt Weill-style closer Dying Breed and you’ve got one of the least predictable country albums of the year. Especially next to Shelby’s last record. Keep it up, little sister — don’t you do what your big sister done.
