American South in Song: Caroline Herring

Threads of hope, the nature of change both violent and gentle, the present as history and history as the present and always, always, the stories that connect all these things: these are what Caroline Herring offers through the songs on her album Camilla.

Images of a young girl catching fireflies and the flames of buildings burning intertwine in Fireflies. The title track, Camilla, takes its name from a Georgia town, and the story of a pregnant woman there who was beaten during the civil rights days, and went on to become a lawyer. Herring's gift for telling a story and making character ring true in just a few well chosen lines comes through clearly in these songs. White Dress is another song grounded in a moment during the civil rights days, when a young white girl gave a young black woman glass of water.

Until You Go, Flee as a Bird, and Joy Never Ends (Auld Lang Syne) make a trilogy on the depths of grief and the nature of healing, as well as the persistence of connection. Summer Song finds hope in the midst of images of a hard summer in the south. The center piece of the album, though, may well be Maiden Voyage, a story that arose out of Herring’s trip with her then four year old daughter to see the inauguration of President Obama -- which, in fact, they did not get to see -- with connections to history and hope and the long story of America all the same.

Herring, who grew up in Mississippi, has lived in the Washington DC area and in Texas, and is now based in Georgia. All those aspects of the American south, as well as her immersion in southern literature and southern folk tradition find their places in Herring’s work and lend depth to her own unique and compelling perspective and sound. Her graceful alto anchors that sound here, in melody and style that is based in that southern folk music and draws in flavors of country and blues and Appalachian sound.

Artists you’ve met here before along the music road support Herring on this project, too. Andrea Zonn adds violin and viola to Joy Never Ends. Bryn Davies brings in her always tasteful chops on bass through the album, while Claire Holley, Aoife O’Donovan, Kathryn Roberts, Jackie Oates, and Mary Chapin Carpenter sit in for harmonies at various points on the project, which was produced by Erick Jaskowiack.

Vivid storytelling, a unique point of view, a graceful lead voice and fine support, a sense of place that illuminates ideas beyond it boundaries, wisdom in the words and in the music: Caroline Herring offers all of these in Camilla.

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Road Trip Music in Mississippi
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Road Trip Music in Mississippi

From the red clay roads of its northern counties to the ports and harbors along the Gulf, Mississippi is a state drenched in music. The story of Delta blues is there, with Robert Johnson and Charlie Patton. You could call Elvis Presley a country blues singer as much as he was a rock’n’ roller. Claire Holley is a contemporary writer and singer from the Magnolia state. Country star Faith Hill is from Mississippi. So is songwriter and producer Marty Stuart. The film O Brother, Where Art Thou? with a soundtrack comprising folk, blues, bluegrass, country, and gospel music, is set there.

As the Great American Road Trip: Music makes its way through Mississippi, the soundtrack comprises two albums from another Mississippi native, Caroline Herring. Herring is a storyteller whose music is informed by history, contemplation, faith, and language. Some of her stories are personal ones, some are character pieces drawn from history, some are set in Mississippi and some have their origins in other landscapes. On her album Twilight there is a vividly imagined emotional and geographic journey on the song Delta Highway. Trace, on Herring’s album Wellspring, takes a journey of history through the lives which have been lived along the Natchez Trace.

Herring tells these tales in a distinctive alto voice that well suits her stories, and with melodies that engage. There are gems on both these albums, stories of Mississippi, Texas, the west, and the heart, all well worth your attention.

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Music Road: Caroline Herring: Golden Apples of the Sun

Music Road: ten songs

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This is part of The Great American Road Trip, in which I’m partnering up with A Traveler’s Library to add musical ideas to the book and film suggestions for journeys through the regions of the United States which you’ll find there. Stop by and see what the Library has in mind to inspire travels through Mississippi.


For more about the road trip (and a look at some great road songs) see Great American Road Trip: Music begins

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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