It makes one wonder what it takes to succeed in this business.

Movie stars and supermodels included, there aren’t more attractive women in the entertainment business than Allison, just different. And her voice is superb, expressive, powerful. She’s a passionate person, certainly unafraid to speak, sing or write her mind. In fact, it’s this very quality that defines and locates her at this point of her life. She and her husband Butch Primm write everything together, seem to plan and to do everything together. After three studio and one live album for the majors (for Tony Brown, at MCA and then Universal South), she sought and got her release from her contract and moved over to the big small side of the tracks at Sugar Hill records, with the help of Steve Buckingham.

Since Butch and Allison have been going their own way from the top, slipping the corporate noose should be a very good thing. Sugar Hill will market their alternative country to the alternative country crowd, for instance… though one is led to believe that Tony Brown did all he could to make that mainstream paradigm work, and the artist has nothing but good things to say about the relationship.

It was the beautiful song she wrote with Gwil Owen, "A Softer Place to Fall," that first brought the artist to national attention. It was nominated for a Grammy from the Robert Redford movie The Horse Whisperer. In fact she made her live debut singing the song on the 1999 Academy Awards telecast.

The new album is called The Duel, and it’s a spirited departure sonically. It's a little Louder, as they put it, and features John Davis on guitar and bass from Superdrag, and Adam Landry from Stateside and The Sways on guitar--they're rockers, very good ones. And it shows another side of Allison’s voice, and is the right bed for the lyrics she and Butch are up to these days.

I saw her live a couple of times right before our conversation, first singing backup with Jim Lauderdale at his CD release at the Station Inn, and then at a matinee performance at Tower Records before her CD release not many days afterward. She’s captivating. I found her very forthcoming and generous with her thoughts and feelings, and think you too will feel like you know a little bit about her after sharing this long phone call on a beautiful Nashville morning.  continue to interview