Margo Cilker – Pohorylle
“Margo Cilker’s weathered voice, an instrument that conjures up visions of wide-open spaces and wanderlust, has quickly made her one of (Oregon’s) linchpins” – NPR Music
MARGO CILKER is a woman who drinks deeply of life, and her debut record Pohorylle, on Portland label Fluff and Gravy, is brimming with it. For the last seven years, the Eastern Oregon songwriter, who NPR calls one of “11 Oregon Artists to Watch in 2021,” has split her time between the road and various outposts across the world, from Enterprise, OR to the Basque Country of Spain, forging a path that is at once deeply rooted and ever-changing.
As Pohorylle traverses through the geography of Cilker’s memories—a touring musician’s tapestry of dive bars and breathtaking natural beauty—love is apparent, as is its inevitable partner: loss. After all, what bigger heartbreak is there to be a fervent lover who must always keep moving? Cilker seems keenly aware of the precarious footing upon which love stands, and at many turns, the record circles a fire that is staggeringly beautiful and slipping away.
“I am a woman split between places,” Cilker sings on the album’s wistful closer, touching for a brief moment upon the vast dichotomies of her selfhood and her profession, and the negotiation that she conducts between them. “I’m just very inquisitive. I’m a very curious person. Why are things this way? Do they have to stay this way? You know, how can things change?” Cilker asks. It is this part of her nature that expands Pohorylle into the complex journey that it is: her ability to crack open a moment of desperation and lay it out on a table to catch a careful light.
The record, which carries gentle nods to Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt, and Gillian Welch, shines under the instincts of producer Sera Cahoone, whom Cilker first came across in 2019 while planning her first full-length. “I was trying to pin down what kind of sound I wanted and stumbled across a video of Sera and just loved how she performed. I then listened to her last studio record and thought, that’s the sound.” Cilker says. “I found out Sera had produced that record herself with John Askew. My friend put me in touch with her and she liked my demos enough to produce the album. It felt very auspicious—It was truly just a gut feeling.”
Cahoone quickly got to work assembling a first-rate band: Jenny Conlee (The Decemberists) on keys, Jason Kardong (Sera Cahoone, Son Volt) on pedal steel, Rebecca Young (Lindsey Fuller, Jesse Sykes) on bass, Mirabai Peart (Joanna Newsom) on strings, Kelly Pratt (Beirut) on horns, and the album’s engineer John Morgan Askew (Neko Case, Laura Gibson) on an array of other instruments. The record also prominently features effortless blood harmonies from Sarah Cilker, Margo Cilker’s sister and frequent touring partner.
Press Materials
Press Photos (credit: Matthew W Kennelly)
Credits
Produced by Sera Cahoone
Engineered and mixed by John Morgan Askew at Bocce in Vancouver, WA
Mastered by JJ Golden
Margo Cilker: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Sarah Cilker: vocals
Sera Cahoone: drums, vocals
Rebecca Young: bass
Jason Kardong: pedal steel
Mirabai Peart: viola, violin
Jenny Conlee-Drizos: piano, organ, Mellotron, accordion
Kelly Pratt: horns
John Morgan Askew: baritone guitar, electric guitar
All songs written by Margo Cilker
Cover photo by Matthew W. Kennelly
Back cover photo by Adam Levy
Press Quotes
“There’s so much unexpected joy and wit on the Oregon-based Margo Cilker’s debut, Pohorylle”. Best Country Albums of 2021 – Stereogum
Cilker shows that she is as interested in reinvigorating Southern country-folk storytelling tropes as she is in exposing their flaws” – Rolling Stone
“Cilker has the power to make you cry with just one note you never saw coming.” – No Depression
“She can break a syllable to break your heart” – Pitchfork
“a hugely promising debut steeped in classic Americana, it’s a bewitching a poetic travelogue of a troubadour’s lot” – UNCUT
“Imagine Gillian Welch at The Band’s sessions with Allen Toussaint, and you’re close to the charm of this new Americana voice” – MOJO
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