Valley Of Heart's Delight

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  Best, Favorite, & Most Interesting Albums Of 2023

  Mark Harrison

  • Genre: Americana.

  • Influenced by: Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel, Gillian Welch, Nanci Griffith, Townes Van Zandt, Jason Isbell, Credence Clearwater Revivial.

  • Similar artists: Margo Price, Jess Williamson, Brandy Clark, Gabe Lee, Amanda Shires.

  • About this album: The second full-length release from Oregon-based singer-songwriter Margo Cilker was produced by Sera Cahoone. Cilker, on writing songs for this album, had this to say, “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.” Interestingly enough, she refers to her style of music as “folkabilly” which is the same term that Nanci Griffith (see elsewhere on this list) used to describe her music – and, in the same year that saw the release of a phenomenal Nanci Griffith tribute album (again, see elsewhere on this list), the top 55 also contains two who could rightly be called heir apparent to Nanci – Cilker and Jess Williamson (again, see elsewhere on this list). Maybe they could do an album together sometime? Thy will be done.

  • Metacritic Score: 88 (Universal Acclaim).

  • Grammy Nominations: None, but it was nominated for International Album of the Year at the UK Americana Music Awards.

  • Song To Sample: Keep It On A Burner and I Remember Carolina.