production and drums by Sub Pop alum / former Band Of Horses drummer Sera Cahoone, recorded by John Morgan Askew (Neko Case, Laura Gibson) and studio players from The Decemberists, Band Of Horses, and Beirut.
Valley Of Heart’s Delight refers to a place where Cilker can't return: California’s Santa Clara Valley, as it was known before the orchards were paved over and became more famous for Silicon than apricots. She is the fifth generation of her namesake born there, and in this 11-song collection, family and nature intertwine as guiding motifs, at once precious and endangered, beautiful and exhausting. Cilker moved from California to the Pacific Northwest in her mid-twenties and wrote much of Valley Of Heart's Delight while living in Enterprise, Oregon, a small town near the Snake River and powered by the river’s massive, publicly-funded hydroelectric dams. The dams (part of the same system Woody Guthrie was hired to write about) provide clean electricity to much of the western United States but make it extraordinarily difficult for anadromous fish (such as Steelhead Trout) to return from the ocean and spawn in their native streams. Valley Of Heart’s Delight feeds off this tension - how we live in and off nature, how we live within and without family, and why we return to the places we were born.
Of the forthcoming album, Cilker says:
“I wrote these songs surrounded by the wild landscapes of the Northwest, but I was leaning toward the place I’d come from. I felt cut off from my family and the valley that held them. I spent hours thinking about my sense of belonging. I’d travelled 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 Heart’s 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 there’s a [cover] song about a fish, cause it’s a damn good song and I wanted to record it.”
Valley Of Heart’s Delight follows Cilker's critically acclaimed debut Pohorylle, which resulted in a profile by NPR's All Things Considered for "bridging the urban-rural divide through music” and was listed among the Best Country/Americana Albums of The Year by Stereogum, No Depression, Glide and Mojo. Pitchfork called the record “a vivid introduction to this country artist who pushes against conventions of the genre that don’t fit her perspective”. Uncut described Pohorylle as “one of the most auspicious debuts of recent times, full of wit, rich insight and poetic candour”. Whilst Mojo wrote “imagine Gillian Welch at The Band’s sessions with Allen Toussaint, and you’re close to the charm of this new Americana voice”. The Observer praised "this extraordinary US singer-songwriter making country and western her newly minted own…a flawless gem of a record”. Pohorylle was also nominated for UK Americana Album of The Year alongside Brandi Carlile and Robert Plant and saw Cilker on tours supporting American Aquarium, Hayes Carll, and Drive-By Truckers.
For more information contact Stefan.Hayes@v2benelux.com
For more information contact Stefan.Hayes@v2benelux.com
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