Critical reception

Ned Raggett of Allmusic commented "Released in a year when Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom is an American harpist, pianist and singer-songwriter from Nevada City, California.- Early life :Newsom grew up in the small town of Nevada City, California...

 made her own most sprawling artistic statement to date, it's become all the easier to see how Creager and Rasputina served as a touchstone for many who followed. The lyrical focus of Sister Kinderhook is clear enough from the title and art alone... yet it's the sonic variety of the album that stands out all the clearer"." Jer Fairall of PopMatters

PopMatters

PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...

commented "Sister Kinderhook finds Creager continuing to explore her baroque-pop niche long after many would have thought its potential had been long exhausted. Creager remains as committed to her craft as ever, both in terms of her manipulation of the cello-based format and her lyrics. It is exactly this historical fetishism that highlights what is alternately endearing and alienating about Creager’s music. The easy entry point that the listener is afforded into the material here is refreshing and [it] could use several more moments that are this emotionally accessible... but her obsessive eye for nuance and oddity can just as often have the effect of trapping her subjects under glass rather than figuring out what makes them tick. When she fails to find a human angle... her songwriting occasionally results in that old creative writing no-no of showing rather than telling."

Charts, certifications and procession

Album

Year	Chart	Position
2010	Top Heatseekers	43

Credits and personnel

Rasputina

• Melora Creager
  Melora Creager
  Melora Creager, formerly Melora Mather, is an American cellist and singer-songwriter best known for her role as lead singer and chief composer of the cello rock trio Rasputina....
  
   – Arranger, Artwork, Banjo
  Banjo
  In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
  
  , Cello
  Cello
  The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
  
  , Composer
  Composer
  A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
  
  , Design, Engineer, Keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  , Mixing, Vocals
• Daniel DeJesus – Cello, Erhu
  Erhu
  The erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a "southern fiddle", and sometimes known in the Western world as the "Chinese violin" or a "Chinese two-stringed fiddle". It is used as a solo instrument as well as in small ensembles...
  
  , Vocals
• Catie D'Amica - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  , percussion
  Percussion instrument
  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
  
  , djembe
  Djembe
  A djembe also known as jembe, jenbe, djbobimbe, jymbe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered drum meant played with bare hands....
  
  , ankle bells

Production and personnel

• Brian Kehew
  Brian Kehew
  Brian Kehew is a Los Angeles-based musician and music producer. He is a member the The Moog Cookbook and co-author of the Recording The Beatles book, an in-depth look at the Beatles' studio approach...
  
   - Mixing
• Paul Gold - Mastering