Details
Valley Of Hearts Delight refers to a place where Cilker cant return: Californias Santa Clara Valley, as it was known before the orchards were paved over and became more famous for Silicon than apricots. Sheis the fifth generation of her namesake born there, and in this 11-song collection, produced by Sera Cahoone, family and nature intertwine as guiding motifs, at once precious and endangered, beautiful andexhausting. Cilker moved from California to the Pacific Northwest in her mid-twenties and wrote much of Valley Of Hearts Delight while living in Enterprise, Oregon, a small town near the Snake River and powered by the rivers massive, publicly-funded hydroelectric dams. Valley Of Hearts Delight feeds off of this tension - how we live in and off of nature, how we live within and without family, and why we return tothe places we were born.I wrote these songs surrounded by the wild landscapes of the Northwest, but I was leaning toward the place Id come from. I felt cut off from my family and the valley that held them. I spent hours thinking about my sense of belonging. Id traveled through many places and then, when the travel stopped, I ruminated on where I had ended up. Where were you when the music stopped? I was in Enterprise, OR. And there in Enterprise, my mind drifted back to the Valley of Hearts Delight.I wrote about family about death and rebirth, and the arcs of love and art through a family line. There are songs that hint at missteps and redemption. There are songs about trees: in orchard rows, family trees, redwoods. And water: agricultural runoff, wild rivers, dammed rivers, baptismal flows. And theres a [cover] song about a fish, cause its a damn good song and I wanted to record it.Valley Of Hearts Delight follows Cilkers critically acclaimed Pohorylle debut, which resulted in a profile by NPRs All Things Considered for bridging the urban-rural divide through music and was listed among the Best Country Albums of 2021 by Stereogum, No Depression, The Boot, Glide Magazine, and more. Pitchfork called the record a vivid introduction to this country artist who pushes against conventions of the genre that dont fit her perspective, and Rolling Stone added, Cilker shows that she is as interested in reinvigorating Southern country-folk storytelling tropes as she is in exposing their flaws.
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