Allison Moorer covers a lot of musical bases on her new album, Mockingbird. Apart from her original title track, it’s a collection of cover songs from such disparate female artists as Joni Mitchell (“Both Sides Now”), Patti Smith (“Dancing Barefoot”), Ma Rainey (“Daddy, Goodbye Blues”), and Cat Power (“Where Is My Love”). As Moorer explains on the line from Chicago before a show with hubby Steve Earle, it was a daunting task choosing material for the CD.

“I started this project thinking that it would be easy,” she relates, “but it was a painstaking process to pick these songs. The list changed and grew and shrank so much that it ended up being something entirely different.”

Mockingbird’s haunting version of Gillian Welch’s “Revelator” is arguably the finest track on the disc, but Moorer is hard-pressed to come up with her personal fave. “I’m really fond of ‘Go, Leave’,” she says of the 1976 Kate McGarrigle song. “I think that’s just a stunning, beautiful song. And ‘Orphan Train’ by Julie Miller is particularly good. But I love them all.”

Family connections run throughout Mockingbird. Moorer covers a tune by her older sister, Shelby Lynne (“She Knows Where She’s Been”), and the closing track, Jessi Colter’s “I’m Looking for Blue Eyes”, was the first song her dad taught her to sing. “I grew up in the country,” notes the Alabama native, “and there wasn’t a whole lot to do besides listen to records and play and sing, so my sister and I both grew up doing that. My dad was a big Waylon Jennings fan, so naturally Jessi Colter fit in that mix. I’ve been singing that song since I was about three years old, so I felt like it was time I put it on a record.”

Challenging though it was, Moorer couldn’t help but benefit from the Mockingbird project. Not only was she able to put her own stamp on material she adored, but she took it as an opportunity to upgrade her songwriting skills. “One of the reasons why I did this record was to get inside some songs that I felt were really good,” she says. “Like any artist, I learn by doing, so it’s definitely been influential to my writing.”

As far as worthy influences go, being married to Steve Earle can’t hurt, either.

“I’ve known Steve’s music since I was about 14, when [his 1986 debut] Guitar Town came out,” she says, “and I’ve always felt he was influential—maybe not directly, but just his spirit and the way he went about things.”

As well as touring together—Moorer does a 30-minute opening set, and later joins Earle on-stage for a few tunes—the two share homes in Nashville and New York City. Earle played some guitar on Mockingbird, and Moorer sang on his latest CD, Washington Square Serenade, which pays tribute to life in the Big Apple.

“We live in the West Village, so we’re surrounded by great restaurants,” she says. “We like to go out and have somethin’ to eat, and either go to the theatre or go to a movie. We like to stay home too, especially on the rare day off, when napping in front of the television is involved.”

Allison Moorer plays the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts on Saturday (March 15).