CAitlin CAnnon
Even in her earliest years, Caitlin Cannon knew she could do just as well as the boys. By now, she’s learned she can do better. “You will never call my bluff cause you don’t think I’m smart enough / Til’ I show the hand I got and I take the whole damn pot,” she sings on “Dumb Blonde (Playing Dumb’s the Smartest Thing a Blonde Can Do)”. Complete with Django Reinhardt-like guitars, the song is an ode to women like Cannon’s idols Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn, who might sometimes have played dumb but who, in fact, were anything but.
And then there’s “Toolbag.” It’s an anthemic assurance that she -- and women just like her -- are better than any man’s games. It can be inferred, perhaps, by the title, that it’s told with her trademark deadpan humor.
Gender inequality is just one of the themes running through Caitlin’s new music, a collection titled The TrashCannon Album, which finds clever wordplay tackling what Caitlin calls the “inner garbage” we all have, but tend to hide away.
Throughout its 12 tracks, The TrashCannon Album shines a light on hard truths – it’s a batch of songs that also confronts alcoholism and addiction, dishonesty in relationships, the divisive effects of class structure, economic injustice and difficult family situations. It sounds like it might be a heavy record -- and it’s true, Caitlin does dive deep into what she’s saying -- but it’s also arranged in such a way that she makes sure you know she’s always looking for the humor in the silver lining.
The Huntsville, Alabama, native, who now shuttles between Colorado and Nashville, making side trips back to Alabama to visit her brother, spent her childhood acting. “I got plucked to play child parts in plays at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville,” she says.
Caitlin took a break from New York City and moved to Durango, Colorado. “I was gonna go to Colorado and be a folk singer, and I was gonna make it!” she says. There she formed an all-girl band called The Cannondolls, although they sometimes billed themselves as The Cannondolls & Balls, and gathered a devoted following in the Four Corners area.
Visit Caitlin Cannon's website.