Photos: Margo Cilker Releases Third Album LITTLE WHITE CROSS via Fossil Records

Margo Cilker has released her third album, Little White Cross, via her own Fossil Records, a label she recently launched with fellow musician ISMAY.

In celebration of the release, Cilker is currently on an East Coast co-headline tour with Lilly Hiatt, which she will follow with headlining shows in Portland and Seattle and a West Coast run supporting The Cactus Blossoms.

Cilker recorded the 10-track set in Lockhart, Texas, with Bruce Robison, the writer/producer behind work by Charley Crockett, Lee Ann Womack, George Strait, and The Chicks. 'You could definitely call it a concept record. If that concept is that I got really sad and went to Texas,' she offers. 'I had some material so dark I didn't think I'd show it to [Bruce]. Then I remembered this is the man who wrote 'Travelin' Soldier.'' One of the songs she's referring to is '

.'

On Little White Cross, originals like 'Molly and Me' are situated among a selection of covers that Cilker had taken to playing as a way to process her own pain. She embraces the longtime tradition of Texas troubadours trading tunes and the art of transforming one work into something distinct, sourcing songs like the album's title track from within her immediate music community.

Originally written and recorded by her friend Christy Hays, '

' feels country-classic in Cilker's hands. It's a song she gravitated toward for its masterful blend of realism and poetry: Little white cross on the side of the road / Little fake flower and a crown of gold / They were going so fast how were they to know / They'd be a little white cross on the side of the road. 'When I find a song that really speaks to me, it helps me make sense of things,' Cilker says. 'Writing can be a lonely affair. But that exchange, that open spirit, it feels essential to art for me.'

For Cilker, songwriting is a contribution to humanity. 'You don't know what people have lived through, what another person is carrying with them,' she says. 'Every time I've written something about hardship, or gone to a place people don't want to go, there has been someone who tells me they needed it.'

Little White Cross follows Cilker's sophomore record, Valley of Heart's Delight, which was named one of the 50 Best Albums of 2023 by NPR Music, one of the 75 Best Albums of 2023 by Uncut and Mojo, and one of the Best Country Albums of 2023 by Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Bandcamp Daily, Paste, and more.

Little White Cross Tracklisting

1. Little White Cross

2. Ladybug

3. Molly and Me

4. State Line

5. Walls

6. Pauline

7. Road to Las Cruces

8. The Money

9. Maryhill Peaches, Goodnoe Pears

10. Wolves

Margo Cilker On Tour

October 9 - Iron Horse Music Hall - Northampton, MA*

October 10 - One Longfellow Square - Portland, ME*

October 12 - Baby's All Right - Brooklyn, NY*

October 13 - MilkBoy Philadelphia - Philadelphia, PA*

October 14 - DC9 - Washington, DC*

October 16 - The Hangar - Troy, NY*

October 17 - Cafe 939 - Boston, MA*

October 28 - Polaris Hall - Portland, OR~

October 29 - Tractor Tavern - Seattle, WA~

November 7 - Globe Hall - Denver, CO^

November 8 - The Marigold Room - Santa Fe, NM^

November 10 - Hotel Congress - Tucson, AZ^

November 12 - Dune Room - Indio, CA^

November 13 - The Roxy Theatre - West Hollywood, CA^

November 14 - The Chapel - San Francisco, CA^

November 15 - Felton Music Hall - Felton, CA^

*co-bill with Lilly Hiatt

~headlining Album Release Shows

^supporting The Cactus Blossoms

Photo Credit: Jon Moore