Morgan Says New Album Reflects Her Life

Somehow, Lorrie Morgan had “evolved into this remote, glamorous figure that I felt was losing touch with the fans,” Morgan recalls.

“I didn’t feel like the real me was coming through.”

For that reason, she says, she asked for “more input” in her recording process - and on her brand-new album, her career’s eighth, she got it. Titled “Shakin’ Things Up,” the new package is co-produced by Morgan and Nashville’s prominent James Stroud, and, Morgan says, it “really reflects the aspects of my life.”

There has been plenty of ballad material in Morgan’s life, which will become an open book in October with publication of an autobiography, “Forever Yours, Faithfully,” which she co-wrote with George Vecsey, co-author of Loretta Lynn’s landmark “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

Married to singer Jon Randall, Morgan is the widow of Keith Whitley, the great neo-traditional country vocalist who died of alcohol poisoning in 1989. “The harsh, cold truth is that Keith was an alcoholic. He was an alcoholic before I met him, while I was with him, and ultimately, it was alcohol that killed him. I loved him with all my heart, we have a wonderful son together, but it was too big a problem for anyone to try to handle alone. I was young and didn’t know what to do.

“I hope my book will help others try to deal with this problem and possibly save a life, (and) at the very least, show that you can survive and ultimately make a new life. At this point I have been a daughter, a mother, a divorcee, a widow, a single mother, a breadwinner and, ultimately, a survivor.”