Cheri Knight and Magical Realism
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you want, provided you've given it a listen or two. It's not for
everyone. But I will try to explain why I think it's the best and most
important country album of the year.
With Nashville being so fucked up, nobody seems to talk much about "the
next big thing." But I think Cheri has given momentum to something that
could be a big thing, which is "magical realism" in traditional music.
"Magical realism" is a school or art (painting, sculpture) and also
literature in which the imagination and fantasy entertwine with factual
reality and history. Kafka and Camus are considered magical realists by
some, but most modern art in this genre comes from Latin America. This
is thought to be because of the repressed morals of a Catholic society
and the freedom to break moral boundaries in fantasy, while adhering to
religious code in real life. Two books cited as classics of magical
realism fiction are Garcia Marquez's "Chronical of a Death Foretold"
and Laura Equivel's "Like Water for Chocolate."
I think that until about 4-5 years ago, some country women were
creating a "next big thing" by writing and singing highly personal
modern songs about the inner world of ordinary women. These were the
female equivalent of the traditional honky-tonk songs, where country
men shared details of their miserable hard lives within a spirit of
camaraderie and escapism. I would put all three of Suzy's bestselling
albums--"Aces, Voices in the Wind, and Something Up My Sleeve"--in this
category. Also, Mary Chapin's "Come On, Come On," Emmylou's "Cowgirl's
Prayer" and some folky albums, especially Patty Larkin's "Angels
Running."
Then, about 1994, that whole happening "next big thing" came to a
grinding halt. In Nashville, it died of represssion. Outside Nashville,
the folkies got younger and turned in other directions, away from the
specific details and feelings of ordinary women.
I think that on "The Northeast Kingdom," Cheri filled in the gap and
showed us where that trend would have gone, which was toward a blending
of the reality-based inner world of women and a spiritualized freedom
to reach in fantasy what women couldn't attain in real life.
Cheri's best magical realism song is "Black-Eyed Suzy," where she is
knee deep in dirt in her orchard and spins into this passionate,
submissive-dominant relationship with her flowers. But in reality, all
her songs take a flight above the plane of reality, while always
keeping her real world in razor-sharp view. In large part, this is done
through Cheri's mastery of viewpoint and motion in songwriting.
Cheri is as good of a writer of music as Laura Esquivel is of fictional
prose. I hope Cheri's work will inspire other women to keep this "next
big thing" alive. And I, for one, will buy anything she puts out there.
Stella