Lantana

Caroline Herring | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 4, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Signature Sounds
• ASIN: B00133KEJ0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #131,992 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best...Period, March 7, 2008

By 

Georgianne Nienaber "Nienaber" (New Orleans) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lantana (Audio CD)

It is about time that excellent writing and singing is making its way back into the genre of Americana. Herring nails every single track on Lantana, and national critics should be shouting from the rooftops that art and Americana can co-exist. Lately, it seems that big name music critics are sycophants and dilettantes who are as about as reliable as movie critics. Read the previous review on this page. It says what national critics should be saying. Go buy this CD and support real writing and real musicianship--and return credibility to music that comes from the heart of the landscape that nurtured Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner.

Unlike many Americana singer/songwriters who hide behind the banners of true iconic artists like Emmy Lou Harris and Lucinda Williams, Caroline Herring grabs their standards and rides like Joan d'Arc through the images of the southland--firmly planting her flag in the red dirt of the Mississippi Delta.

Viva Santa Caroline Herring! Viva La Pucelle d'Mississippi!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Austin American Statesmen review, March 4, 2008

By 

Caroline Gear "soxfan" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lantana (Audio CD)

The sour certainty of a lover's infidelity often slips a murder ballad's trigger. Caroline Herring chooses to measure unconditional love's disintegration instead. "I confessed that, for love's sake, I drowned my children in John D. Long Lake," the Atlanta-based songwriter sings on "Paper Gown." "They're with Jesus, looking down at me in this paper gown." True story: That's Susan Smith deteriorating underneath the weight of a malevolent Carolina moon.

Herring flawlessly reports the grisly material. Presented with corresponding degrees of damnation and empathy, her watertight assessment of the 1994 American tragedy would be a crowning achievement for most artists. On "Lantana" -- an embarrassment of riches drawing the straightest line between tradition and transition this side of Adrienne Young -- it only rates halfway up the chart.

More treasured moments -- coming-of-age bookends "Heartbreak Tonight" and "Fair and Tender Ladies," say, or the closing "Song for Fay" -- celebrate women and strength in vulnerability. Every attempt pierces its mark. In fact, few folk albums since Young's 2005 hallmark "The Art of Virtue" have proved a more thorough success. Herring's endearing maternal memorandum "Lover Girl" -- "Even now we're dancing, longing for a place to know," she sings -- alone suggests its undying resilience.

Now, grab hold of a sturdy beam before spinning "Midnight on the Water." Talk about the hollow aftermath of faded love. Echoing like a cannon in a cockpit, Herring distills the traditional fiddle tune into arguably the purest representation of heartache since "Goodnight Irene."

"The scenes were there as in a mirror made by the moon upon the water and our love was never stronger," she gently warbles. "The picture was broken by the waves we left behind at midnight on the water, once upon a time." Even decades of scratching, of course, won't remove the deepest stains of regret.

Recommended: "Paper Gown," "Midnight on the Water," "Song for Fay" -- Brian T. Atkinson

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best yet, February 6, 2009

By 

Alton Gray "Movie Binks" (Norfolk, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lantana (Audio CD)

This is her third album and her best yet. I have the other two and have enjoyed them but think she has never sounded better (or written better songs) than here. She is a sensitive, literate songwriter with a good voice and well worth hearing. If you haven't heard her yet start here.