Reviews
Artist:Caroline Herring
Album:Lanatana
Label:Signature Sounds
Tracks:10
Website:http://www.myspace.com/carolineherring
In my opinion, and I am sure, that of many others, Caroline Herring possesses what could be one of the most haunting and distinctive voices in modern Americana music. She was born in Mississippi and clearly has a deeply rooted sense of her origins and of the South and its history, which being a fan of the South and Southern history, I certainly relate to. However, if you knew nothing of the South, her music is so compelling it would leave you wanting to visit and learn more. Lantana, which documents both a personal and artistic crossroads for this singer songwriter, is the long awaited follow up to her 2003 offering Wellspring and has gained comparisons with the content of Southern folk rocker Lucinda Williams among others. It is immediately obvious that Herring is no rocker, however , preferring to tell her stories of people and places in a stirring acoustic style which allows her voice to shine. Bluegrass legend Peter Rowan says of her songs, "Each image she crafts is highlighted, then recedes into the past." Her subject matter is firmly grounded in the rural South; "Mississippi's dense history and the shackles of its past are vividly present in Herring's songs," noted Craig Havihurst in the Tennessean. In this she perhaps inevitably reminds me of fellow Mississippi songstress Kate Campbell, in that her songs also tell you not only about her present but of her homeland's complex past. Herring now lives in Atlanta but is clearly still deeply connected to those Deep South roots.
The album title, she explains (reassuringly I must not be the only one who didn't understand the title's origins), refers to "a wild-looking, flowering plant that grows like crazy around here. Lantana flowers attract butterflies, and it's common to see lots of them hovering around a big lantana plant. The image is in my song Lover Girl, in the lines: 'Longing for a place to know/Where branches reach, lantana grow/And butterflies take their poses.' Essentially I guess, it is about finding a place to call home and making it home, whether that be the place where your roots are, or the place where you choose to put down your roots, for whatever reason. This is a beautiful, almost ethereal track, but for me the album standouts are Stone Cold War and the haunting Paper Gown is about the 23-year-old South Carolina woman who drowned her sons. Herring explores the possible roots of that unfathomable act, relating this contemporary horror story making it listenable but by no means easy listening. In fact the song and it's story remain with you long after the final chords have played.
What I know without a doubt, listening to this CD, is that Caroline Herring is moved by these stories and wants her listeners to be too. She believes every word she sings and in turn as a listener you can't help but be drawn into her stories and believe that she loves what she does as much as you love to listen to it. This CD really ought to put her out there for more to find and hopefully her recent signing to Signature Sounds, will help to make this a reality.
Helen Mitchell