Happy New Year!
Today is my last day of holidays, but I put my free time to good use. Along the way, I aw friends and family, played games, had a few drinks and generally caught up on a whole lot of sleep debt.
I also explored a whole bunch of fine music along the way, including this next record.
Disc 1701 is…Valley of Heart’s Delight
Artist: Margo Cilker
Year of Release: 2023
What’s up with the Cover? Margo kicks back and enjoys a big sky. I prefer the rugged landscapes of British Columbia, but I can also see a goodly amount of heart’s delight in the gentle slopes of this river valley.
How I Came To Know It: The boring way – read a review and liked what I read, listened to the album on Youtube and liked what I heard. I also knew Margo Cilker from her 2021 release Pohorylle, which I have yet to review.
How It Stacks Up: I have two Margo Cilker albums. While I haven’t officially revealed which two, it is an easy guess based on the information available to you so far. The two records are both excellent, but I must reluctantly place “Valley of Heart’s Delight” in the #2 position.
Rating: 4 stars
2023 was the year of Fluff and Gravy records, a small independent label that consistently releases some of the best indie folk, country and Americana out there. Today’s discovery is Margo Cilker’s second record, “Valley of Heart’s Delight” a wandering minstrel of a record through the many times and forms of folk and country music.
“Valley of Heart’s Delight” covers a lot of ground, from barroom sway to back country trail songs. The journey is held together by Cilker’s voice, which lands somewhere between carefree and weary, with outbursts of yeehaw should the moment require it. Her tone is similar to Lucinda Williams, both in terms of the heavy emotion and also the light nasally warble. The tunes are less blues-driven than Lucinda, landing more solidly in the country lane.
The album is beautifully produced by fellow singer/songwriter Sera Cahoone. Cahoone clearly “gets” Cilker, and understands that even the rowdier songs need space and quiet to let their beauty unfold. For this reason, this record is significantly better on headphones than in a car. I listened to it multiple times in the car, but it wasn’t until today that I got one last “at home” listen in that I was reminded how much I loved it when I first heard it. It needs your attention. If you want to just play it while you’re cooking eggs or having a pint at the pub, you are doing it wrong.
The record opens with the most accessible tune (always a wise choice) with the free and easy “Lowland Trail”. This tune has some classic country guitar twang that won’t ever feature this heavily again on the record. It is wonderful here, but you won’t miss it. If anything, Cilker is signalling to you that the record is going to search high and low for the truth, and in doing so she’s likely to explore a lot of different facets and styles of music. Getting things started with this refrain-heavy ear-pleaser is a wise choice.
Later she’ll get into drunken sway of songs like “Keep in on the Burner” and “Crazy or Died” or the folksy strum of “Beggar for Your Love”. The latter song also shows off Cilker’s talent for weaving emotional honesty with evocative images of rural living. Best lines in the song are in the opener:
“It takes two to tie
up a line only sometimes
You can get a good fire to burn through the night if the wind's right
I've been looking at the answers trying to find the in between
I've been watching it all from this porch unraveling”
It isn't always perfect. The second half of “Remember Carolina” descends into a goofy rhyme-time game that feels self-indulgent and out of place on an otherwise fully invested record. It was the only time I felt that way, however. Most of the time, I was just happy to immerse myself in Cilker’s world, as she comingled grief, exploration, and the general acceptance of relaxing and seeing where the lowland trails of life will take you, creatively and otherwise.
It took exactly one record for me to regret leaving something off the “best of 2023” albums, but this is it. Less than a week past posting and I’m already wanting to make edits. Writers, I tell ya…
Best tracks: Lowland Trail, Beggar for Your Love, With the Middle, Santa Rosa, Sound and Fury, All Tied Together
No comments:
Post a Comment