Gunpowder

A searing, lyrical self-portrait by the maverick Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter, a Southern Gothic story of passion, violence, and music as salvation.

Shelby Lynne Moorer grew up in south Alabama, in Frankville, “not really a town, more of a zip code.” Her parents were musically gifted and imparted their talent and discerning taste to Shelby and her younger sister, Allison. But they were also locked in a violent, volatile struggle. Her father’s explosive rage and physical abuse, fueled by alcohol, culminated in a horrific act: in the pre-dawn hours of August,1986, Franklin Moorer came to the house where his wife had finally fled months before with the two girls in tow, shot her on the front lawn and then turned the gun on himself, while the girls were asleep in their beds. Shelby was 17; her sister just 14.