It's a bad sign when an artist downsizes from a major label to a boutique independent like Sugar Hill. In Allison Moorer's case, the change has coincided with a lurch away from the sultry southern soul she delivered so scintillatingly on 2002's Miss Fortune (a record that came wreathed in its own heat-haze).

The Duel finds her reversing, inexplicably, into a ponderous version of early-1970s country rock, which couldn't have been more perfectly designed to curb the potential of her wonderfully emotive voice. Moorer and band stumble out of the gate with the lumbering Crazy Horse-ish I Ain't Giving Up On You, while the drinker's lament One on the House mopes and meanders very much like Neil Young's venerable dirge, Out on the Weekend. As for the last track, Sing Me to Sleep, the Gram Parsons estate might consider a plagiarism suit for its glaring similarities to Hickory Wind. Moorer at her peak is a singer in a million, but this isn't her peak.