An album which leads from a concept rooted in despair which ends as hopeful observations of life and its shifts.
Margo Cilker says of her third album; “You could definitely call it a concept record.” Recorded with producer Bruce Robison (Charley Crockett, Lee Ann Womack, George Strait). I had some material so dark I didn’t think I’d show it to him.”
The title track opens the album and sets out her approach to the album. “Hardships that once felt rare, like gun violence, wildfires, abuse, now feel nearly constant,” she says. “It wasn’t always like this. It seems like the rate of tragedy keeps intensifying. How do any of us cope?” She translates this concern into imagery drawn from car crash sites. “Little white cross on the side of the road. Little fake flower and a crown of gold. They were going so fast how were they to know. They’d be a little white cross on the side of the road.” Written by Christy Hays, the midtempo country song has a generally reflective feel which supports the deeper message.
Ladybug is another contribution from an outside writer, in this case Seattle songwriter Sera Cahoone. Cilker’s “pedal steel secret weapon” Eric Heywood turns in a stellar performance on this song, again on the subject of an unexpected passing, possibly a suicide. Powerful words, cover the mundane aspects of a sudden absence, especially in the verse about the departed friend’s pets.
That same theme of the seemingly commonplace consequences of events occurs in Molly and Me. “I often feel haunted by stories, kept up at night by a kind of external pressure to tell them,” says Cilker. “I’ll write a song just to alleviate the grip it has on me.” The rhythm section of Lisa Pankratz on Drumsand Bassist Scott Davis take the funereal pace of the song and make it into something quite heartbreaking.
With only part of the album self-written, Cilker does lean into songs from other writers which fit the “concept” she has settled on for the album. Although it is her own songs like Molly and Me and State Line with its multi layered guitar from Geoff Queen which stand out as the core of her thoughts and concerns in making Little White Cross. The characters in her own writing are ones which we have probably all met, like the waitress in Pauline.
Having said that she turns in a great version of Tom Petty’s Walls. She says, “When I find a song that really speaks to me, it helps me make sense of things.” Working with Robsion they made a conscious choice to “let despair lead”, recording directly to tape in an all-analog setup and placing Cilker’s originals among the considered selection of covers; there are six on the album, songs Cilker had taken to playing as a way to process her own pain.
Kevin Carducci’s The Money may be the pick of the covers, but her co-write with another Washington state writer, Forrest VanTuyl, is the most intriguing song here. Maryhill Peaches, Goodnoe Pairs. A song placed in the Columbia River Gorge, and the Peaches and Pears grown there. The use of pears/pairs to look at relationships is the most effective piece of poetry on the album.
For an album that does have an air of bleakness, and the despair she was looking to build into the concept it is surprisingly easy to listen to. The album’s press release sums up the message she was looking convey by saying “Every time I’ve written something about hardship or gone to a place people don’t want to go, there has been someone who tells me they needed it.” Like venom spun into antidote, or ashes feeding the earth, Cilker’s sadness arrives as its own part of nature’s cycle. Pain consumed to soothe.
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