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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 29 OcTOber 2019
Allison Moorer details tragic family legacy in memoir

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — reflected inward on how
Singer-songwriter Allison the two sisters dealt with
Moorer has long been the shame and abuse in dif-
hesitant to talk about the ferent ways — both forever
deaths of her parents when psychologically scarred at
she was just 14, but it was such a young age.
no secret. The murder-sui- "I realized that when you
cide in 1986 was something are raised in an addictive
Moorer and her older sis- household, you're taught,
ter, Grammy-winning sing- or are told either directly
er Shelby Lynne, avoided or indirectly to deny what
questions about their entire you see, what you hear,"
careers. Moorer said. "And most
"Every editor, every journal- heartbreakingly what you
ist was told, 'Just don't ask feel. Because nobody's
her about it,'" Moorer said. supposed to talk about
"Well, of course that was Daddy's drinking."
what they all wanted to The album came much
know." quicker as she realized that
Then in 2010, Moorer was she had been trying to tell
interviewed by poet Maya parts of her family's story in
Angelou and the topic song before, but it never
came up. Moorer, who In this Oct. 8, 2019, photo, singer-songwriter Allison Moorer poses in Nashville, Tenn. to promote felt complete. The album
had just given birth to her her memoir, "Blood," and her album of the same name. includes a song called
son, John Henry, gave Associated Press "Cold Cold Earth," that she
her a standard response initially recorded in 2000 in
that stuck to the facts, but ily's tragic, dark secrets. mother tried to leave him "It's surprising how much we an attempt to address all
glossed over the details. "I needed a larger form to and protect her children, keep buried," Moorer said. those reporters' questions.
Angelou's response was, tell the story," Moorer said. but from an early age, "There were points dur- "Nightlight" is her ode to
"Yeah, but what are you "Blood" is a lyrical, poetic Moorer seemed to know ing the writing of the book her older sister when she
gonna tell John Henry and haunting story of the that it would end in trag- where I would literally hold reached out for comfort as
when he's old enough to girls' childhoods in rural Ala- edy. onto my desk because I a scared little girl.
ask?" Moorer recalled. bama and of their parents Moorer, who earned a would be overwhelmed." Lynne wrote the forward to
That prompted her to start Vernon and Laura Lynn, master's degree while writ- Moorer split up the narra- the book, saying it "exem-
a different kind of writing. whose stories encompass ing the book, dug through tive into three parts, first plifies how two sisters can
It's taken her years to write much more than the way family pictures, recordings, dealing with her parents' face the most horrific situ-
"Blood," a memoir out on they died. Her father was lyrics, letters and even au- fractured relationship, her ations and come out not
Tuesday with a companion an alcoholic and physi- topsy notes that spurred father's violent fits of rage only surviving them, but
album of the same name, cally abusive to both his what she called active re- and her mother's natural finding each other as wom-
to finally address the fam- wife and his children. Their membering. musical voice. Then Moorer en now."q

Masterpiece found in French woman's kitchen sells for $26.6M

By THOMAS ADAMSON father of the Renaissance. on sale so there was no ref-
Associated Press But this sale goes beyond erence previously on how
PARIS (AP) — An old paint- all our dreams," Le Coent much it could make," he
ing found in the kitchen of told The Associated Press. explained.
an elderly French woman, An auctioneer spotted the Titled "Christ Mocked," the
who considered it an icon painting in June while in- painting measures about
of little importance, has specting a woman's house 10 inches by 8 inches (24 by
made her a multimillion- in Compiegne in northern 20 centimeters).
aire. France and suggested she Art experts say it is likely part
The work, a masterpiece at- bring it to experts for an of a larger diptych that Ci-
tributed to the 13th-century evaluation. It hung on a mabue painted around
Italian painter Cimabue wall between the kitchen 1280, of which two other
that was discovered earlier and dining room. panels are displayed at the
this year, sold for 24 million The woman will now re- Frick Collection in New York
euros ($26.6 million) Sun- ceive "the majority" of the and the National Gallery in In this Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019 file photo, art expert Stephane
day. sale money, the auction London. Pinta points to a 13th-century painting by Italian master Ci-
Dominique Le Coent of Ac- house said. The painting's discovery mabue in Paris, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019.
teon Auction House, who The expected sale price has sent ripples of excite- Associated Press
sold the masterpiece to had been 4 million to 6 mil- ment through the art world.
an anonymous buyer near lion euros ($4.4 million to Cimabue, who taught Ital- movement and perspec- Cimabue.
Chantilly, north of Paris, $6.6 million). ian master Giotto, is widely tive that came to charac- Stephane Pinta, an art
said the sale represented Le Coent said experts were considered the forefather terize Western painting. specialist with the Turquin,
a "world record for a primi- off the mark because it was of the Italian Renaissance. Specialists at the Turquin pointed to likenesses in fa-
tive, or a pre-1500 work." the first time a Cimabue He broke from the Byzan- gallery in Paris initially ex- cial expressions and build-
"It's a painting that was had ever gone under the tine style popular in the amined the painting and ings, as well as the painter's
unique, splendid and mon- hammer. "There's never Middle Ages and began concluded with "certitude" techniques for conveying
umental. Cimabue was the been a Cimabue painting to incorporate elements of that it bore the hallmarks of light and distance.q