Earlier than the pc scientists, advertising and marketing businesses, and self-described “disruptors” had their approach with it, the Santa Clara Valley was often called the Valley Of Coronary heart’s Delight. The Northern California area was so nicknamed as a result of its abundance of orchards, vegetation, and flowering timber made it a number one exporter of canned fruit — and presumably due to the multi-sensory splendor that tends to accompany a lot well-tended nature. In observe, the Valley Of Coronary heart’s Delight isn’t any much less a branding train than Silicon Valley, however the former identify spoke to far completely different qualities, ones that may by no means be coming again now that large tech has confirmed to be a extra worthwhile harvest.

Margo Cilker grew up within the valley, however by the point she was born it was already morphing into the place we all know in the present day, ripe not for the tasting however for biting satire. Cilker moved away from residence in her twenties; she bounced round to North Carolina and the Basque nation and ultimately settled within the rural Pacific Northwest along with her husband, a ranch hand. Regardless of household roots in Santa Clara County that return 5 generations, she now feels alienated from each the land and its inhabitants. That disconnect haunts Valley Of Coronary heart’s Delight, the singer-songwriter’s second full-length LP.

Cilker’s 2021 debut Pohorylle was a kind of data that by no means dredged up a torrential hype storm however turned a treasured favourite for a lot of. Produced by Sub Pop alum Sera Cahoone with a band together with indie-folk veterans just like the Decemberists’ Jenny Conlee-Drizos, Pohorylle offered Cilker as a chronicler of the world’s much less explored corners, with a knack for sensible, humorous wordplay and a musical model that blurred the strains between nation and folk-rock. In naming it one among the yr’s greatest nation albums, Marissa R. Moss raved, “There’s a lot surprising pleasure and wit,” whereas Stephen Deusner marveled at how a lot which means Cilker wrung out of the expletive in opening line “That river within the winter, it might fuck me up.” Comparisons to greats like Emmylou Harris, John Prine, and Gillian Welch inevitably adopted.

Valley Of Coronary heart’s Delight runs it again with subtly spectacular outcomes. Cahoone is as soon as once more on board as drummer and producer, and Cilker’s bandmates, largely from Portland, have labored with artists like M. Ward/She & Him, Beirut, Band Of Horses, and Neko Case. They make a great workforce. As if mirroring the combo of considerate precision and cheeky playfulness Cilker brings to her lyrics, the band performs simply free and carefree sufficient that each meticulously plotted association appears to breathe with spontaneity. Seemingly each instrument will get its second to shine, be it the brass part that provides “Maintain It On A Burner” the wobbly grace of New Orleans jazz, the eerie indie rock atmospherics on the finish of “Mom Informed Her Mom Informed Me,” the harmonica solo that rips by means of “Santa Rosa,” or the best way Conlee-Drizos’ saloon piano appears to converse with Paul Brainard’s pedal metal on the cross-country rambler “I Keep in mind Carolina.”

On the heart of all of it is Cilker. She’s not a powerhouse singer whose voice will blow you away, however she instructions consideration by means of informal magnetism. She hits her notes, her line readings are peppered with conversational quirks, and she or he sounds nice harmonizing along with her sister Sarah. Nonetheless, you won’t discover the feel of Cilker’s voice as a lot as what she’s saying with it. She’s a exceptional lyricist carving out her personal house inside a grand custom, all the time subverting Americana tropes or discovering methods to make them really feel new. Each time I pay attention by means of Valley Of Coronary heart’s Delight, one other distinctive line jumps out at me.

The album typically looks like a journey by means of the broad open West and past, with Cilker relishing each the great thing about nature and the eclectic experiences she’s accrued alongside the street. “Bought hills to climb in my very own candy time,” she sings on easygoing opener “Lowland Path,” whereas the propulsive “I Keep in mind Carolina” takes her throughout North America, from Carolina to California to Idaho, stopping at a Bob Dylan live performance close to Boston and ending with “the perfect burger in Texas.” My favourite sequence: “Went on a bender in Bozeman/ Sobered up in Hamilton/ Fell in love with a fisherman/ However it was catch and launch.”

However these travelogs simply as usually blur with the ache that haunts Cilker’s songwriting. Written whereas floating down a river, the ambling nation soul tune “Maintain It On A Burner” offers with the nagging ideas that interrupt in any other case nice days: “I bought sidewalks, I bought sunburned, I bought books I haven’t learn/ I bought neighbors telling neighbors they’ll be burning up after they’re useless.” And although “Santa Rosa” ends with a restaurant advice — I do hope I can get breakfast on the previous Comet II sometime — it additionally nods to Cilker’s standing as a prodigal daughter who may by no means come residence. Over a plate of Christmas chile at a New Mexico diner, she notes, “I seemed behind the counter/ Noticed three crosses above the pies/ All of it felt as acquainted/ Because the place I’d left behind.”

Different songs extra straight give attention to Cilker’s strained relations along with her household and hometown; we don’t get an in depth account, nevertheless it seemingly has to do along with her rejection of suburban life and the indignant Fox Information-style Christianity that usually goes with it. The minor-key “Mom Informed Her Mom Informed Me” explores the stress over Cilker’s departure, biking by means of takes from numerous relations earlier than concluding, “Oh, the love/ The best way it cuts/ Higher than a knife/ Bleeding for a lifetime.” On “Sound And Fury,” she each seems to be again wistfully on the valley (“It’s the Wreck at Los Gatos/ My residence in Los Altos/ The apricots’ yearly return”) and rejects the life marked out for her there (“It’s a shirt we’ve been provided/ From the backs of our moms/ I’m going I’m going I’m gone”). The beautiful “With The Center” both depicts her aimlessness earlier than leaving residence or a restlessness she nonetheless can’t shake: “What do I do with the center between the espresso and the wine? The a part of the day the place my coronary heart says, ‘I received’t do it this time.’”

The track that hooked me was the one which spells it out most plainly. “Loopy Or Died” plods alongside magisterially like an previous gospel hymn, with a refrain so easy you bring it to mind straight away: “Loopy or died/ Loopy or died/ Everybody I look as much as has gone loopy or died.” It begins with a portrait of Maggio, a battle veteran described as “a hug with two eyes,” who in his previous age has been consumed by some unnamed negativity you’ll be able to most likely think about. Later Cilker notes the disconnect between Jesus’ phrases and plenty of of his followers and wonders whether or not a Second Coming would actually go any higher than the primary: “If that man comes again right here/ He’ll go loopy or die.” Arriving on the top of a deeply unhappy track, such a jolt of darkish humor is like recent air within the lungs and a candy style on the tongue. It’s pleasant.

Valley Of Coronary heart’s Delight is out 9/15 on Fluff & Gravy.