''The Northeast Kingdom'' is an album by the American musician

Cheri Knight Cheri Knight is an American singer, songwriter, and bassist known for her albums (solo and with the band Blood Oranges). Early music career After performing in various Northampton-area bands, Cheri Knight was the singer, songwriter and bass pla ...

, released in 1998. It was Knight's second solo album. Knight supported the album with a North American tour.

Production

The album was produced by the Twangtrust, a duo of

Steve Earle Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Initially working in the country music g ...

and Ray Kennedy; Earle also played guitar. The album was recorded in two weeks at Room & Board Studio, in Nashville, although for months Knight avoided listening to the completed project. Tammy Rogers,

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course of her career and has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and numerous other honors, including ...

, Will Rigby, and Garry Tallent were among the musicians who contributed to ''The Northeast Kingdom''. Knight conceived of many of the songs while working on her Massachusetts farm.

Critical reception

The ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...

'' wrote that "Knight still sings in an unaffected warble that would make Linda Thompson proud, but this time the able production duo ... masterfully guide that voice on a long, colorful ramble." '' No Depression'' thought that the album "arguably defines the moniker 'alternative country' and at the same time stomps on it, defying any genre tag anyone might throw out there." Jon Pareles, of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', listed ''The Northeast Kingdom'' as one of 1998's best "underheard" albums, writing that "country meets its Celtic heritage in death-haunted songs of love and strife." ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' stated that Knight "heads right into a rich weave of rootsy introspection without stopping to wonder what's country." ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' determined that "a strong undercurrent of reverberating guitars, harmonies and rhythms pushes a lot of the music far beyond the Nashville mainstream."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

called the album "extremely ambitious, smart mainstream pop with a lot of indie rock and country elements."

Track listing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Northeast Kingdom Cheri Knight albums 1998 albums Albums produced by Steve Earle