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As a country artist based out of New York City, Allison Moorer is familiar with working in foreign territory. But there's something more daunting about the next step in her discography. On Feb. 19, New Line Records will release Moorer's Mockingbird, an album that finds the singer exploring the works of some of music's great female songwriters. Leading off with an original track from Moorer, the rest of the track list contains covers of songs from Nina Simone, Patti Smith, Cat Power, Joni Mitchell and others.

“Some people have asked me why I wanted to cover only female writers," Moorer said via a press release, "and all I can say about it is that I think the feminine voice should be paid attention to, treasured and encouraged.”

Here's the song rundown for Mockingbird, with the songwriter(s) in parenthesis. Click here to read Moorer's commentary on the songs she chose to record.

1. Mockingbird (Allison Moorer)
2. Ring of Fire (June Carter Cash/Merle Kilgore)
3. Dancing Barefoot (Patti Smith/Ivan Krall)
4. I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl (Nina Simone)
5. Go, Leave (Kate McGarrigle)
6. Revelator (Gillian Welch)
7. Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
8. Daddy, Goodbye Blues (Ma Rainey)
9. She Knows Where She Goes (Shelby Lynne/Bill Botrell)
10. Orphan Train (Julie Miller)
11. Where Is My Love (Cat Power)
12. I’m Looking For Blue Eyes (Jessie Colter)

Moorer's tour itinerary is also soon to come.

Related links:
Moorer on MySpace
Paste: Allison Moorer - The Duel
YouTube: Allison Moorer - "Send Down An Angel"

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It’s a Friday in March and Manhattan is abuzz. Night has come and it’s happy hour in the lobby bar of Allison Moorer’s obnoxiously trendy 27th Street hotel, but she’s oblivious. Her husband and songwriting partner, Butch Primm, is upstairs in bed and she plans on joining him once she finishes this interview. Besides, she’s already had her share of big city fun for the day.

Moorer is still aglow from a four-song set she and her bandmates performed earlier in the day at New York’s hip noncommercial station, WFUV. “We were holed up in this little bitty room, all five of us, and it made me so happy,” she says. “Those are the moments where I go, ‘Right on.’ I was just so happy to be there. That may sound corny, but most people don’t get to stay in this business as long as I have unless they’re really successful. Somehow we’ve stuck to our guns and I’m still here.”

Ever the vixen, the pouty-lipped Moorer is in New York hawking The Duel, her fifth album and debut for the rootsy Sugar Hill label. Last night, she played a showcase at the tiny Joe’s Pub. And while the room was half-full at best, Moorer slayed. Soul-busting Mississippi mama and dust-kickin’ Tennessee torch singer in one, she stood center stage emptying her lungs—the power and grit in her voice stating clearly that her big, Southern talent is as natural and authentic as it comes.

It was one of those performances that leaves you scratching your head wondering why such a talent toils away in relative obscurity year after year, record after record. But talent alone (and in Moorer’s case both talent and looks) doesn’t guarantee you the keys to the kingdom in the music biz. It’s a harsh truth she learned during her tenure at MCA Nashville. “You sort of find yourself in the situation where you pour your heart and soul into something, and you have someone going, ‘You’re great, you’re the best thing ever. We’ll figure out how to do this.’ And then they don’t give a damn. They don’t care. They have 40 other acts, and they can just throw [your album] up against a wall and see if it sticks.”

Her time in the major-label world tested her faith and self-confidence. The album’s lead track, “I Ain’t Giving Up on You,” is a message to herself. That said, The Duel feels like a rebirth for Moorer. At the very least, it marks a crossroads, finding her exhaling after exiting the major-label treadmill.

The album—which she wrote at home in Nashille with Primm—is all about faith, she says. “And it could be faith in God, faith in yourself, faith in another person, faith in what you do, faith in the world, faith that everything’s gonna be all right or not going to be all right.”

Despite critical praise, country radio never fully warmed to Moorer’s gracefully gritty sound, which channels Memphis and Muscle Shoals as much as it does Nashville. Now, after releasing four major-label projects, the 31-year-old exited Music Row last year in search of a top-notch indie. Before the ink dried on her contract with Sugar Hill, she was back in the studio tracking The Duel with husband and collaborator Butch Primm, who for the past decade has served as a less-visible David Rawlings to her Gillian Welch. The record is a bit more rough-hewn (and at times, noisier) than her last few releases, kicking off nicely with the slow-burning “I Ain’t Giving Up on You,” before picking up steam with the chugging “All Aboard.”

Her craft sits equally comfortable whether on barstool (“One on the House”) or pew (the stellar, solo-piano title track), each lyric full of rawness and immediacy. These 11 selections prove her voice is as big as anyone’s out there. What distinguishes Moorer from other Southern sirens is the discipline her singing exudes. She knows when to whisper and when to wail, giving her songs room to breathe. And be heard as they’re meant to be heard.