Admittedly, I was not hip to the splendid kaleidoscope of Margo Cilker’s country music stylings before this summer. But, when I first heard “Keep It On A Burner,” I was hooked. I had to know who this singer/songwriter was—because it was one of the best songs I’d heard in a long, long time. Those are some of my favorite moments in this profession, when I stumble through my PromoJukebox library and land on something that, for lack of a more romantic turn-of-phrase, changes everything for me.
Cilker was born into the fifth-generation of a family hailing from the Santa Clara Valley, but she moved to the Pacific Northwest in her mid-20s. She calls Goldendale home now and is even married to a working cowboy. What you hear acrossisn’t some falsity—it is, incomparably, the real deal and then some. Album opener “Lowland Trail” conjures honky tonk bar guitar chords and Newport Folk Festival vocal gospels. “I’ve got hills to climb in my own sweet time,” Cilker sings out.
To segue from “Lowland Trail” into “Keep It On A Burner” is a huge flex on Cilker’s part. Here, she takes a beautiful country musing and turns it into this gigantic, rewarding soundscape set adrift with Kelly Pratt’s horns and Jenny Conlee-Drizos’ crystalline piano. Much of the lyrics arrive like a laundry list, as Cilker sings of things that have happened to her, things that are around her and things to come: “I got sidewalks, I got sunburned, I got books I haven’t read.
But, like all great records, “Keep It On A Burner” is not where the good stuff ceases. “I Remember Carolina” showcases Drizos’ piano and Paul Brainard’s pedal steel—especially as the two instruments duet so greatly together.
That wit and grandeur quickly tumbles into the slow-burn balladry of “Beggar For Your Love”—which plays out like some type of “Wild Horses”/“So Far Away” hybrid, which is fully in my wheelhouse of interests—as Cilker laments no longer feeling like she has to bend over backwards for someone else’s affection. “You can get a good feel for where you belong only sometimes,” Cilker croons. “You can get a good line to hold up a song if the rhyme’s right.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: chicagotribune - 🏆 8. / 91 Read more »
Source: cleantechnica - 🏆 565. / 51 Read more »
Source: NylonMag - 🏆 697. / 51 Read more »
Source: AustinChronicle - 🏆 593. / 51 Read more »
Source: abc15 - 🏆 263. / 63 Read more »
Source: KSLcom - 🏆 549. / 51 Read more »