now playing: caroline herring: lantana

Caroline Herring sees her native ground of the American south with a poet’s eye and a seeker’s heart. Through ten cuts on her latest release, Lantana, she draws her listeners into reflections on marriage, family, faith, and finding one’s place in an ever shifting and changing world, a world that is framed as much in the dust of red clay roads as it is in the sometimes strange and powerful paths of the people who travel them. As gifted a singer as she a writer, Herring knows how to tell these stories and when to get out of their way. She grew up in Mississippi, and that experience infuses her work, as does the time she’s spent living in Austin, the Washington DC area, and her current home, Georgia.

In the tradition of folk murder ballads, Herring takes on the story of Susan Smith, who drowned her children in search of other loves. Lay My Burden down is a contemporary yet timeless take on the southern gospel sound. In Heartbreak Tonight Herring tells of a woman that any who’ve grown up in the south will know, as will any who’ve seen their dreams change and reflected on that. In a very different view of that journey, there’s States of Grace. Herring also shines on the well chosen covers she’s included, especially Midnight on the Water.

She’s been compared to Joni Mitchell. That comparison stands, both for the quality of her writing and singing, and her ability to convey a unique perspective.


you may also want to see this post which has comment on one of Herring’s songs from an earlier album