Single Review: Cheri Moon “Ain’t I A Woman”

With a voice as strong as hers, Cheri Moon doesn’t need to rely on a lot of grandiosity when it comes time to making a new single sound like a genuine hit. Her talent is neither learned nor replicated from another artist in or outside of her scene, and to me, her melodic wit is matched only by her stealthy execution. All of her best features are put to work in the new single “Ain’t I A Woman,” and while I’m just getting to know her sound through this release, I can already tell I’m going to like what she has to offer.

The beat in this track follows the lyrical placement as opposed to the other way around, but this element never seems experimental beside any of the other foundational points in the music. On the contrary, I think that by giving a faint eclectic edge to almost every component of the harmony, as well as the compositional bones beneath it, Moon makes it obvious that her interests lie to the left of making mainstream, recyclable pop melodies for radio play specifically. I admire her aesthetical purity, but more importantly, what she’s actually doing with it here.

There are as many delicate moments as there are exhibitions of bruising strength for us to behold in “Ain’t I A Woman,” and to some degree I think both extremes were necessarily spotlighted given the desire to create a versatile showcase with this release. Cheri Moon is, after all, quite the multidimensional songwriting specimen, and it becomes rather difficult to argue against this after hearing her conceptualism come to life as flawlessly as it does in this most recent instance. She’s got what it takes to do even more than this, and I’d love to see her take things a step further with her next batch of original material.

“Ain’t I A Woman” is quite frankly one of the best songs I’ve heard illustrating unbound femininity in years, and its poignant, colorful substance makes it among the few singles from an independent player I would recommend to listeners of all backgrounds and tastes this spring. Cheri Moon is definitely a raw talent in the process of developing breathtaking refinement, and if she has the chance to get onto a more exposed stage in the next year or so, I have a feeling she’s going to do some incredible, unforgettable things for music fans everywhere.

Blaine Calhoun