Apricots don’t sell like silicone, and California’s once eden-like Santa Clara Valley now stands as a shiny but barren testament to that fact. Margo Cilker, whose debut album, Pohorylle, quickly rose like cream to the top of the favored list for critics after it’s quiet release in 2021, is a 5th generation native to the Santa Clara region, which unfortunately means she and her family have watched from the front row as the once fruitful valley, known informally as the Valley of the Heart’s Delight, was sacrificed piece by piece on the altar of progress. 

Cilker’s newly released sophomore album is a stirring and nostalgic tribute to the valley in its natural hay day, and therefore goes by the same title, Valley of the Heart’s Delight. Margo teamed up again with Sarah Cahoone, her producer for Pohorylle, and using the understated musicianship and lyric focused production that garnered so many critical accolades during their first collaboration, the duo have created a second offering just as solid and free as the first. The Valley of the Heart’s Delight culminates as something more than just bittersweet homage, and instinctively feels like a vivid and lyrically illustrative magic portal to a land long paved under in concrete; the Santa Clara Valley of old.