Caroline Herring
Album: Camilla
Label: Signature Sounds
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.carolineherring.com

The story behind Camilla can be read here: http://www.carolineherring.com/blog/2012/9/20/the-story-behind-camilla.html

Singer songwriter Caroline Herring hails from Mississippi. I will admit now that I have something of a love affair with Mississippi, the Deep South and thus, a fascination with the Civil Rights Movement. As such I was intrigued by this CD from first hearing about it.

Recorded in Nashville, this CD is nothing short of a masterpiece. Mary Chapin Carpenter and Aoife O'Donovan add an exquisite dimension to Traveling Shoes, inspired by revered Southern writer Eudora Welty.

In the title track she recalls the fierce courage and determination of civil rights heroine, Marion King, who was brutally beaten by a sheriff's deputy in Camilla, Ga. in 1962 while lobbying for a friend's parole. She survived, her unborn child did not. There is a strange irony about Herring's beautiful voice delivering such a story; it almost makes it seem even more humane that people could be treated in this way for fighting for what they believed in and all should have been entitled to.

White Dress recalls the story of Mae Frances Moultrie, the freedom rider who survived a bus firebombing in Anniston, Alabama. It brings to mind fellow Southern singer songwriter Kate Campbell; I can give no greater compliment.

Maiden Voyage tells a personal story of Herring and her daughter visiting Washington D.C. for the inauguration of Barack Obama, only to be shut outside the barricades while the "privileged held." Herring 's reaction is to teach her daughter to place her hand on her heart while singing Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land. This alone speaks volumes about her creativity.

Her real skill lies in rendering such a tumultuous time in American History, which is still raw for so many, so listenable. She tells stories without casting judgement; it is for the listener to make up their minds. For those interested in the subject it it is a new angle and new stories; for those who are unfamiliar, it is a powerful introduction. For those unfamiliar with the South it is a first visit, for those who have a connection, it is a reminder of the thing that draws us back, time and time again and why the place and its history got under our skin.

Whichever category you fit into, this CD and its stories of people and humanity, hatred and courage, deserve to be heard by everyone.

Helen Mitchell