CD Odyssey Disc 1378: Sera Cahoone

Sheila often talks about clothing as armour, but today I experienced clothing as camouflage. On my walk home from work I go through some sketchy parts of town. In a suit it can feel a little awkward (and I probably make the residents awkward as well). Today I changed into shorts and a workout shirt and felt far more at ease.

What does this have to do with music, you ask? Nothing at all. Just sharing.

Disc 1378 is…. From Where I Started

Artist: Sera Cahoone

Year of Release: 2017

What’s up with the Cover? Um…nothing? We have the usual font/signature she uses for many other album covers, and not much else. Maybe “From Where I Started” refers to a time when she couldn’t afford album art…?

How I Came To Know It: I am a big Sera Cahoone fan, so this was just me eagerly buying her latest release as soon as I heard about it.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Sera Cahoone albums and they are all good. “From Where I Started” is brilliant, landing at a respectable second place, a shade off the perfection of “Deer Creek Canyon”. Here’s a full accounting:

1. Deer Creek Canyon: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 975)
2. From Where I Started: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
3. Only as the Day is Long: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 943)
4. Self-Titled: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1324)

Ratings: 4 stars but almost 5

Sera Cahoone is the siren of sadness; she’s going to make you feel a little melancholy before the album’s over, but it is going to sound so beautiful you’re drawn to the experience anyway.

“From Where I Started” was the first new release from Cahoone in five years, but it was worth the wait. Along the way her sound got a bit brighter and more distinct. This additional lightness works well with the natural dusky moodiness of her voice. Her songs can be as gloomy, but the spring of the banjo, the violin, and the pedal steel offset this to give the songs what every good piece of art needs, a little tension.

Cahoone’s guitar playing (or Jeff Fielder’s – the liner notes are sparse) is also exceptional. The songs vary in tempo and tone and the playing underscores and reinforces each songwriting decision. Sometimes there is a basic strum and sometimes it is a playful picking pattern, but it always feels exactly right. The guitar is the unacknowledged hero of “From Where I Started” a trusty steed that carries you through every song’s narrative, enriching the journey so smoothly you only notice it when you want to.

Even when she guests in on the banjo, Cahoone is a star. On the touching love song “Up to Me” the inspired guitar plucking takes centre stage, but it is Cahoone’s hesitant and romantically awkward banjo bits that elevate the song into a vulnerable, human expression of affection. The banjo doesn’t sound brash and self-assured like banjos often do. Instead it feels like it is working up the courage to say “I love you” and hoping it won’t be rejected.

In terms of subject matter, Cahoone takes her usual introspective journey through relationships, self-doubt and – just when you think your heart’s gonna break – a little domestic bliss.

“Always Turn Around” is an internal journey, and “Better Woman” is a song about appreciating your partner, the more so when you aren’t your perfect self and they love you anyway. The aforementioned “Up To Me” is all shy winks and kisses in the rosegarden. It would be precious, if it weren’t so perfect.

As with most of Cahoone’s records, there are a couple of Grade A heartbreakers. “Ladybug” is the true story of the murder of Cahoone’s niece Tawnee Baird at the hands of her abusive girlfriend. The song opens with a gut punch:

“Tawnee you had just turned 21

When I got the call sayin’ you were gone”

And then goes on to express every emotion of regret and sadness you can muster in 3:22, including a haunting image of Tawnee’s traumatized cat hiding under the bed for two weeks after the murder.

On “Taken Its Toll” Cahoone sings of a relationship ending in the more traditional way; the dull ache and terror of what comes next. The song choked me up every time I heard it (I even cried once).

All this emotional toll didn’t deter me, though; I listened to this album four times straight and could have easily done five. I didn’t want to stop, but the tide was in and the Odyssey was calling me on.

Best tracks: Always Turn Around, Better Woman, Ladybug, Up To Me, Taken Its Toll, Only One, Not Like I, Tables Turned