Margo Cilker announces new album ‘Valley of Heart’s Delight,’ shares “Lowland Trail”
Oregon folk/country singer Margo Cilker will follow her great 2021 debut album Pohorylle with her sophomore LP, Valley Of Heart’s Delight, on September 15 via Fluff & Gravy Records in the US and Loose Music in the UK/EU. Like her debut, the new album was produced by former Carissa's Wierd member-turned-solo artist Sera Cahoone, who also played drums on it, and recorded by John Morgan Askew (Neko Case, Laura Gibson), and Margo's band on the album features The Decemberists' Jenny Conlee on keys, Beirut's Kelly Pratt on horns, and more. Margo 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 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 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.
The album's lead single is opening track "Lowland Trail," a gorgeously earthy song that picks up right where her debut left off and has our hopes for this new album very high. Listen below.
UPDATE (5/16): Margo has announced venues and openers for her fall tour, including NYC's Mercury Lounge on October 19 with Humbird. Tickets go on sale Friday, May 19 at 10 AM with presales beforehand. All dates are listed below.
Tracklist
1) Lowland Trail
2) Keep It On A Burner
3) I Remember Carolina
4) Beggar For Your Love
5) Mother Told Her Mother Told Me
6) With The Middle
7) Santa Rosa
8) Crazy Or Died
9) Steelhead Trout (Ben Walden Cover)
10) Sound & Fury
11) All Tied Together
Margo Cilker -- 2023 Tour Dates
June 10 — Georgetown Carnival — Seattle, WA
August 5 — Sweet Pea Festival — Bozeman, MT
June 17 — Woollystar Music Festival — Markleeville, CA
June 22 — Jackalope Jamboree — Pendleton, OR
June 24 — Big Ponderoo — Sisters, OR
July 15 — Cave Creek Ramble — Trout Lake, WA
10/5 Missoula, MT - Zootown Arts +
10/6 Bozeman, MT - Live from the Divide+
10/7 Bozeman, MT - Live from the Divide+
10/10 St. Paul, MN - Turf Club+
10/11 Spring Green, WI - Sh*tty Barn+
10/12 Milwaukee, WI - Back Room at Colectivo+
10/14 Chicago, IL - Schubas Tavern+
10/17 Toronto, ON - Monarch Tavern#
10/18 Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe#
10/19 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge#
10/21 Philadelphia, PA - MilkBoy #
10/22 Washington, DC - DC9#
10/24 Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle Back Room#
10/25 Charlotte, NC - Evening Muse#
10/26 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle#
10/28 Chattanooga, TN - JJ’s Bohemia
10/29 Nashville, TN - 3rd & Lindsley
11/17 Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
11/18 Portland, OR - Polaris Hall
11/19 Portland, OR - Polaris Hall
+ - w/ Christy Hays
# - w/ Humbird