“Beneath These Stars” — A Treasure
Box of Delights
By Jane Brady

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 Inspirational folk artist Cherie Call has garnered national acclaim for her soulful lyrics. Her voice is so warm and inviting it’s no wonder she’s a regularly invited performer at Nashville’s legendary Bluebird Café. Her fans appreciate most her lyrical narrative — the stories she tells. This latest album, Beneath These Stars, is a lyrical feast that won’t disappoint.

 She sings in “Holding On”:

What Cherie holds on to are valentines, her father’s love, her mother’s faith, her husband’s hand. Her distinctive humor comes through when she decides to hold on to her backyard — and hopes she can fit it all into her car.

While she’s filling her treasure box full to the brim in “Holding On,” she's packed it full for her listeners as well. She has stuffed in the ever-important sacred things of life, layered in with humor, fun, sunny days, harvest moons. Cherie’s well-packed box of memories provides a smorgasbord of delight.

And while all of her songs may not be light, they’re all honest. “Family Tree” poignantly captures the pain of divorce through her mother’s perspective. It’s a song that has taken Cherie years to write. While the topic seems heavy, by no means is “Family Tree” a downer:

 Through striking use of metaphor, the tree near the driveway of her childhood home, her “family tree,” allows us to visualize her devastation in a concrete way. Complete with torn branches, the image of the tree takes us through the pain of loss and back again. We truly believe the tree can be healed, even though it will take a different shape.

 Maybe Cherie is successful with this resolution because nothing about her lyrics feels forced. At a recent concert at Wheeler Farm in Salt Lake City, Cherie mentioned she has no luck writing songs that are more religious than she is. I believe her. Nothing about her lyrics falls flat or feels false. Her catharsis works because she so fervently believes in the resolution she presents to us listeners.

 While Cherie does tackle difficult topics, there’s plenty of fun in this album as well. One of my favorite cuts is entitled “Names”; it catalogs some of the less common titles of God. Sure he’s Creator, “Eternal and Endless, Provider and King” but as the ultimate mentor he’s also “Mathematician, Concert Musician, Master Physician, and Listening Friend.” As the ultimate mentor, He can wear all the varied and specific hats any of us can.

 Though she herself admits her lyrics take a front seat with her, her background music is none too shabby. The songs feel bare boned, not a lot of orchestration stealing the show. Generally performed with her acoustic guitar or piano, there are a few strings and drums thrown in for flavor. The tunes are simple but memorable. You’ll hum them as you wash the dinner dishes.

 A friend of Cherie’s recently issued her a challenge. The friend was bothered because all of life's complex problems seemed to be worked out in a mere three and a half minutes in Cherie’s songs. Could she write one where things didn’t have a happy ending? Cherie took the challenge but failed — in a wonderful and unexpected way.

 In “No,” several people ask God for favors. For instance, a little boy prays that he won’t have to take a bath, that they will cancel school for snow. Not surprisingly, God’s answer is No. A young man wishes the girl of his dreams would come back to him. He prays that she’ll “turn around and change her mind” but again God says “No.”

I’m quoting too many lyrics but that’s just the point with Cherie. Her stories are so good and her words so satisfying that you can’t help but remember and relate them. She climaxes “No” with:

 The life blood theme of Cherie Call’s sixth release is the way Heavenly Father will meet us wherever we are and lift us up. He can be close to us no matter where we are, like a blanket of stars surrounding and comforting us. That ability to draw nature in through metaphor makes her songs comforting, thrilling, and relatable. Though the title Beneath These Stars isn’t the title of any of the tracks on the new CD, each song on it emphasizes our connection with the divine. Cherie Call has an uncanny ability to serve up all that nature, beauty, pain, and love in an all-you-can-eat buffet. You won’t walk away from her album hungry.