First Impressions: “Cherokee County” by Kalyn Fay

Yesterday morn found me driving in the Mazda3 Time Machine, Diane by my side. Traffic and ill-placed stop lights left us lurching in a gun-and-done crawl through the UNC campus, picking up speed only to slow down. Our desire to fly through time to dates unknown was left on the dashboard, in other words, as reaching the 88mph required to kickstart the Flux Capacitor V8 into gear was impossible. As a result, a doctor’s office remained our destination.

Apple Music’s New Music Mix, which looks to past plays to predict new and recent tracks I might enjoy, played on the 20-minute ride, with Diane and I both sharing our thoughts about what we heard. The employed algorithm fails more often than not, but that’s okay. Through the years, it’s still exposed me to a slew of releases I might otherwise have missed. This time, the 25-song set ranged from the honky-tonk heaven that is Brennen Leigh’s “Every Time I Do” to Allison Russell’s Gloria Gaynor homage, “Stay Right Here,” to a sweet instrumental by Amanda Shires and Bobbie Nelson, plus the perfect pop that is Al Costelloe’s “So Neurotic.” More than a few clunkers were included, too—and, no I won’t list them.

As we freed ourselves from downtown, a strummed acoustic guitar struck a nerve. Folksinger Kalyn Fay’s grainy vocals, which followed, hit another. Diane was as enthralled as me. “Cherokee County on a Sunday night/trailer homes hung with ACIC lights/and the sky fading in the dying embers,” Fay sang, painting an image-rich portrait of life on the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma. To say time froze would be an exaggeration, of course. The car moved forward and, by song’s end, I was turning into the parking lot at the doctor’s office. And, yet, it seemed as if time stood still for those three minutes and 49 seconds.

We arrived home by mid-morning and, soon enough, my day’s routine began—firing up the work computer, strapping on my headphones, and losing myself in work and music, including several promising new releases that Apple Music’s new mix algorithm missed. (For shame, Apple Music. For shame!) But none that captivated me as much as “Cherokee County.” Give it a listen and then, as I did, dig into her her 2016 debut, Bible Belt, and 2019 follow-up, Good Company. The songs on both, like “Cherokee County,” take you places.