Things you buy through our links may earnNew Yorka commission. It was a lot of just banging my head against the wall, she says. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Eliot, the band she co-founded with her twin sister Allison), Crutchfield has carved a consistent recording and performing career that has. I love all of it, but I knew [that sound] wasnt going to be super-sustainable for me because its so loud and abrasive. As the name suggests, the project shows Crutchfield venturing further into the Lucinda Williams-esque country she leaned into on Saint Cloud, blending her voice with Williamson on the lead single Problem With It. Their new album,I Walked With You a Ways, arrives on Oct. 14. Listen to Waxahatchees Brass Beam, an Embrace of Her Southern Roots. Shortly after, in 2015, Morby found himself touring a home in Overland Park, Kansas, that his father had just finished refurbishing; he bought it on the spot with his deposit from recently signing to Indiana indie label Dead Oceans. Maybe Ill have a garden when Im 55, Morby used to tell himself before he and Crutchfield planted one in 2020. Crutchfield wrote Fire, a folky slow-burner, while she and her partner, musician Kevin Morby, were driving from Birmingham to their home in Kansas City, a route that goes directly through Memphis. Additionally, Crutchfield moved to Kansas City several years back with her partner and fellow musician, Kevin Morby, a KC native, making her something of a local these days. March 27, 2020 "My first reaction was grief," says Katie Crutchfield, 31, the Alabama-born indie artist who records under the name Waxahatchee, and whose new album, the gloriously languid and. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. She also went on to perform under the name King of Everything. And I can connect with it in a way that I think a lot of people can't, because she's actually talking about things that I have experienced with her. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. I really wanted the whole thing to feel very organic and to feel like a performance. It's a gorgeous piece of work featuring her sister Allison, Katie Harkin (Sleater-Kinney, Flock of . All rights reserved. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. Its been good to see, after moving so much all the time for so long, that I can stay still, she said. THE ACKLEYS: (Singing) And I said you cannot be here all by yourself TYLER-AMEEN: Katie sang lead and played guitar; Allison started on drums and switched to keyboard. As Waxahatchee, Katie Crutchfield has been chipping away at her craft for the better part of a decade, uncovering new forms as she goes along. I have come back to that, and its great. Thats the hook. Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee performs at Brudenell Social Club on September 6, 2017 in Leeds, England. TYLER-AMEEN: Hamilton took The Ackleys under his wing, helping them record and release their music on his own small label. Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee sports a Rilo Kiley tattoo on her arm. Crutchfield can hear that maturity in her own voice. The living room has a piano and a keyboard; the front room is a cozy listening area housing dozens of records. We can find out that tons of money are spent by bands on the promotion of their album. Crutchfield says she also struggled with imposter syndrome as a young musician. Im working on another Waxahatchee record at the moment. She says the two of them have been inseparable since they were kids in Birmingham, Alabama, writing songs in their parents' basement. Morby, meanwhile, had finished an Australian tour and hadnt gotten a true break from touring in years. ; Im so blessed.. CRUTCHFIELD: I was sort of like, OK, this is my chance to say all of these things that I'm feeling, 'cause I've been making all sort of these clumsy life decisions and, you know, not really getting anywhere good in my life. And she can hear the focus of Katie's songs starting to shift. Almost in a Leslie Knope kind of a way. Morby, now 32, hadnt lived in the Kansas City area since high school, when he spent his nights at DIY shows and eventually dropped out to move to Brooklyn. As a podcast producer at KCUR, I help investigate questions and local curiosities in a way that brings listeners along for adventures with plot twists and thought-provoking ideas. Kevin Morby is leaning back on his living-room couch in a hoodie, shorts, and a Kansas City Royals face mask. That morning, she had woken up early; the rain in the forecast hadnt materialized; she had made herself a cup of coffee. Katie Crutchfield is known for Waxahatchee: Fire (2020), Runaways (2017) and Shithouse (2020). Like I was looking at things honestly for the first time. The chorus of that track is just Crutchfield singing I want it all, over and over, as fresh colors break and deepen around her, the chords looping into a state of tenuous reassurance. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Her zodiac sign is Capricorn. Photograph by Andreas Laszlo Konrath. And you know, shes got all the demos for the new Waxahatchee record and shes just been gassing me up or giving me bits of feedback. 7-Minute Listen. "That's what I'll take into the next record.". Almost every song that you hear on the album was like his first idea. Line of Sight 4. I grew up in Alabama and my parentsmy mom, especially, just loves pop music from all eras and the era specifically that she grew up in. Both grew up in Southern states where country music was omnipresent (Crutchfield, who records as Waxahatchee, in Alabama; Williamson in Texas). I knew that I had so much to say and I knew that it was there, but I just couldnt get it. Have they changed at all, taking them into the live performance realm? Getting ready to tour the album, Crutchfield felt newly proud and deliberate. Cloud, and Williamsons enchanting Sorceress but were unsure when theyd be able to tour. Im like, Whoa, thats a lot of stuff Ive worked on in the last couple years that I had not worked on then. Rooted and easy, the eleven songs, which have earned Crutchfield comparisons to Lucinda Williams and early Dylan, warm listeners with hard-won sunlight and unexpected peace. She got there way before I was born. Its penultimate track, Ruby Falls, tells of a friend who died after overdosing, and its final track, the titular one, calls back to her fathers home town, in Florida, and to lonely rides on the M train in New York City. She barely. Kevin burned it more than anyone I know, and I took that really intentional time off, but prior to that, I burned it harder than anyone I know., The couple tried to scratch their performance itch with some livestreamed at-home shows. Jess and I brought each other more or less finished material and then we would do all of my songs like I wrote and then brought to Jess and then she would kind ofProblem With It is a great example. Cloud was a really big record for me in so many ways, she said. Katies support was so important for me as we wrote this album. Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson Embrace Their Roots, as Plains Both singer-songwriters came of age in the South and started out in indie-rock. Ive been dreaming about hearing the album in personmore than any recent album that Ive heard, Saint Cloud evokes a sense of freedom and belonging that has been elusive in this era of constraint and distance. Crutchfield is thirty-one, and shes been a front woman for more than half of her life. Their street is a row of homogeneous one-story ranch homes with SUVs in the driveways and piles of leaves gathering out front. Boards are the best place to save images and video clips. Its a really personal thing, sobriety. TRACY CRUTCHFIELD: I've been amazed that they've been basically doing shows and going on the road since they were 16, 17 years old. Williamson was delighted with the metaphor: I like that image, Katie, she said. I feel like myself again.. Coming of age in the late 90s, they were shaped by mainstream country radios strong but ultimately fleeting embrace of powerhouse female artists: Williamson pored over the lyric booklets to the Chicks records; Crutchfield hummed along to Shania Twain, Martina McBride and Trisha Yearwood songs in the back of her parents car. Tickets sold out online within minutes: "We felt so supported and loved by the city.". Its so funny how seamless it was. CRUTCHFIELD: I was in this sort of perfect storm of emotion. Its just fun and yeah, it does give me a lot of freedom and I feel like the thing Im sort of dancing aroundits like, Kansas City is sort of outside the spotlight of the music business, in a way. It's out October 14th, and as a preview the super . But you might findit interesting that even without spending a penny and having a meaningful full verse in the lyrics you can have the best-selling album recorded in your noisy bedroom. His instincts were so important on that record. Her longtime favorite album, Williamss Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, was speaking to her in a way that felt new. Then, as tightly in unison as they are on their record, they laughed. Best of 2022 Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Top 250 TV Shows Most Popular TV Shows Most Popular Video Games Most Popular Music Videos Most Popular Podcasts. It was written between Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Marfa, Texas, and recorded in Durham, North Carolina. She thought every song she wrote was going to be her last, and that it was luck, not talent, that gave her the opportunity in the first place. The city I grew up in is smaller than Kansas CityBirmingham, Alabamaand not to even say that Kansas City is a small city, its just sort of like its in the middle of the country and its maybe just skipped over sometimes on tour routes or whatever. What are your roots in country music? To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Cloud, though, courses through I Walked With You a Ways as well. Wed both been so on the move constantly this has been the one place we can come when theres a slow moment. I had been avoiding looking at my substance issues in a direct way for a long time. She spent six months trying to recalibrateroaming the country, considering a move back to Alabama, wanting to write but finding herself blocked. He and Crutchfield, also a singer-songwriter, better known as Waxahatchee, started dating after a tour together that spring, crisscrossing the country to meet here at Morbys home just outside Kansas City when their time off aligned. Rounding up our favorite funny videos of the month. 'Saint cloud' is her latest album released on 2022 March 27. KATIE CRUTCHFIELD: (Singing) I've like I got my way. It was definitely one of those days, she says. Plains, the new project from Jess Williamson and Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield, have announced their debut album I Walked with You a Ways. Wed both been so on the move constantly this has been the one place we can come when theres a slow moment, Crutchfield adds. This project just feels really fun and celebratory. She was between jobs. Crutchfield envisioned Plains, though, as something of a palate cleanser after a rewarding but emotionally intense album cycle. It was so kismet and cool., Today, clean since June 2018, she feels like shes reverted in some ways to her teenage self. CRUTCHFIELD: (Singing) My gal and father, vomit and water, we're not alone here. I had all this frustrating creative energy. It is estimated she might have around $1 to $4 million. Accuracy and availability may vary. All rights reserved. Thats been pretty validatingto have this intuition that Ive been having confirmed by the public. When that group split up, the Crutchfield's launched a new pop-punk group, P.S. Theyll head through the West Coast and over to the East, stopping at New York Citys Webster Hall on Nov. 11. On the cover, Crutchfield is barefoot, wearing a sky-blue dress, sitting atop a pickup truck the color of butterscotch ice cream, its bed wreathed with red roses. // photo by Molly Matalon. Crutchfield then signed with Durham, North Carolina's Merge Records, which released the album Ivy Tripp in 2015 and sent her out on tour with Kurt Vile and the Violators and Sleater Kinney. But this is her first album that explicitly evokes the music she grew up with. Katie Crutchfield, who records music under the name Waxahatchee, released "Saint Cloud," her fifth solo album, in late March, just as the country went into coronavirus lockdown. The Plains project with Jess Williamson isnt a total 180 for you, musically, but it is definitely twangier than anything youve ever done before. When singer Jess Williamson and Waxahatchee leader Katie Crutchfield had to cancel their respective tours in the spring of 2020, the friends spent a lot of time talking to each other on the phone. Collect, curate and comment on your files. She got there first. Rolling Stone ranked it the 7th best album of 2020, and Pitchfork named it 2nd. In a recent interview, she told the musician Jess Williamson that, earlier in her career, she had thought of herself as a songwriter more than a performershe would just stumble out on stage and kind of mumble my songs into the microphone and then stumble off and go out with my friends. Through making Saint Cloud, she realized how much self-respect she had been denying herself: she needed to love myself enough to go out and hone some power for a second and put it out into the world. At the beginning of March, she gathered her touring band for a long and magical weekend of rehearsal in Michigan. Katie has a slim and slender body type with height and weight that are not yet known. Because a lot of this music the old country music thats my parents music.. From the beginning, thats the thing thats guided mea confidence and a belief in the songs and the way that the album turned outso it has been really cool to see people have a big reaction and really enjoy it and connect with it. Well, you know, Ive never written songs with people. All Rights reserved. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. My email is steve@kcur.org. The second album, Cerulean Salt, reached no. TYLER-AMEEN: She drove to the family's lake house outside of town. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Rihanna Is Pregnant, Rep Confirms Following Super Bowl Halftime Show Dave Hollis, Former Disney Distribution Chief, Dies . I was gonna change it and she insisted: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. 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Its very cut and dry, almost like Im frustrated that Im having gushy feelings, she says. In mid-2018, Crutchfield reevaluated the life shed built on tour. Eliot. It was short-lived. Katie Crutchfield (born 1989) is a singer, songwriter and founder of Waxahatchee, a solo project which has recorded and toured as a band. Jess Williamson and Katie Crutchfield of Plains, a project born in the pandemic during long phone calls between the two musicians. We're sitting on the back porch of her house in West Philadelphia, which she shares with seven friends - all musicians - including her twin sister, Allison. Rolling Stone named it no. He named his latest for a type of person who feels increased melancholy during twilight hours. The music is attuned to the cycles of the day. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The worst blizzard to hit the area in decades stranded Katie in an empty house. They ended up talking for almost four hours and going to dinner together, where they bonded over both coming from the South. Katie Crutchfield. Almost immediately, it started snowing - and snowing and snowing. I am learning how to be alone TYLER-AMEEN: She called her new project Waxahatchee, the name of a nearby creek. Thats kind of the whole thing, I thinkjust to take a big swing creatively, just for fun, and then go back to business as usual. She signed a contract with North Carolina's merge record releasing an album Ivy Drip in 2015 and set on tour with Kurt Vile, the violators. The mastermind and star of Waxahatchee was Birmingham, Alabama singer/songwriter Katie Crutchfield, who couched her emotionally direct lyrics in rough-edged, guitar-driven rock . Its just a different pace of life and it gave me so much room to focus and spread out and take my time and exhale and all these things I really needed to do. 3 min read Plains-by-Molly-Matalon - Credit: Molly Matalon* In early 2020, just. Anytime, as a captain, you step onto someone elses crew, its never an easy dance.. She felt protective of her freshly sober experience, aware of surfacing personal weaknesses. 'American Weekend ' was one of the albums documented by KatieCrutchfield in her bedroom. Weve been sitting with this record for a long time. You have to drive straight over the Mississippi River and its so epic, she says. That a breakup happened somewhere amid this elegant . Lately, Morby and Crutchfield have taken to the same mundane quarantine activities as the rest of the country: cooking, gardening, home improvement. She has frequently gone on tour for her albums. Eliot, she and Allison also recorded music as Bad Banana. NYT Critic's Pick. And at 24 years old, she's already had multiple careers as a musician. He also taught them a crucial lesson: Being a musician gets way more exciting when you start playing out of town. ALLISON CRUTCHFIELD: We hit this point when we were 14, when we first started, where we kind of didn't hang out with anyone else. Her reps confirmed her pregnancy following the show. Sunday's concert also marked Crutchfield's first show in Kansas City since making the city her home. All of these projects were anchored by Crutchfields bold sense of melodic color, her offhandedly piercing lyrics, and the prickly restlessness in her delivery. CRUTCHFIELD: L kind of came to everyone and was like, guys, what if we call it "Blue" - just Blue. And I smashed my phone. And then of course, Phil Cook. TYLER-AMEEN: She'd gone through a couple of bad breakups. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. Katie has been in a relationship for more than five years with her boyfriend Kevin Morby. 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