Sera Cahoone
Issue #35
Only as the Day is Long (Sub Pop)
By Rebekah Meek
Published: March 1st, 2008 | 1:43pm
Sera Cahoone makes simple sound easy, but the songs on Only as the Day is Long take time and patience. The record, her debut release on Sub Pop, opens with what sounds like the heel of a cowboy boot clacking on a worn, wood floor, followed shortly after by a tremolo guitar and Cahoone's weathered, honey-thick voice. These are old-fashioned country songs at their best, replete with swooning lap steel and two-step back beats; it’s a hootenanny tempered by heartbreak and too many days on the road. Cahoone sings about what she knows.
Such honesty, coincidentally, makes for a perfect record to listen to while on the open road or in the wake of a bitter heartbreak: the swelling crescendo of strings paired with the quiet subtlety of just Cahoone’s voice and an acoustic guitar. The album oscillates between a sultry, gothic cynicism on tracks like “Happy When I'm Gone” and “The Colder Air” and bare-bones optimism on the bright “Runnin’ Your Way,” where Cahoone sings, “You told me it's gotta get better than this / You've got so much left in you for the big old world to see.” The final track, "Seven Hours Later,” is a husky-voiced recounting of a heartbreak that hurts less after she “opens all the windows to leave it all behind.”
Cahoone began her musical career as a drummer for Carissa's Weird, which is clear in her syncopated, well-timed songwriting. Only as the Day is Long will make you glad she stepped out from behind the drum kit and into the dusty spotlight to croon her own sweet, sad songs.
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