Katie Crutchfield, who records and performs as Waxahatchee, will release Saint Cloud via Merge Records on March 27. Crutchfield announced a six-week spring tour in support of the forthcoming studio album and previewed Saint Cloud by sharing the single “Fire.”
Crutchfield recorded the 11-track LP at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas and at Long Pond in Stuyvesant, New York. Brad Cook produced Saint Cloud which finds Katie backed by Bobby Colombo and Bill Lennox of Detroit’s Bonny Doon as well as multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman and drummer Nick Kinsey. “I think all of my records are turbulent and emotional, but this one feels like it has a little dose of enlightenment,” noted Crutchfield. “It feels a little more calm and less reckless.”
Waxahatchee’s tour spans April 10 – May 22. Katie, who will be backed by Bonny Doon, opens the run at Jam Handy in Detroit on April 10 and then plays Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Holyoke (Massachusetts), Boston, Providence, Brooklyn, Washington D.C., Saxapahaw (North Carolina), Nashville, Atlanta and Birmingham. The East Coast leg is followed by dates in Baton Rouge, Houston, Dallas, Austin and Tucson. Waxahatchee then hits California for shows in Pioneertown, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sonoma. A trip to the Pacific Northwest comes next with concerts planned for Portland, Vancouver and Seattle. The tour ends back in the Midwest after dates in Maquoketa, Iowa on May 20, Minneapolis on May 21 and Madison on May 22.
“The idea and melody for ‘Fire’ was dreamt up while driving over the Mississippi River from Memphis into West Memphis, Arkansas, sun reflecting off the water which literally made West Memphis glow,” Crutchfield said of the LP’s first single. “The song’s written by me, to myself. It’s about the internal dialogue of shame surrounding mistakes you’ve made in the past and how we spiral and beat ourselves up when we slip. It’s meant to be a bit of a personal pep talk. If I can love myself unconditionally, then I can move through the world a little easier. If I can accept that I only have a partial view of the universe, and that I can’t know everything or control much of anything, then I can breathe a little easier, take better care of myself, and be closer to my own truth.”
Check out the video for “Fire” below:
Saint Cloud Tracklist
- Oxbow
- Can’t Do Much
- Fire
- Lilacs
- The Eye
- Hell
- Witches
- War
- Arkadelphia
- Ruby Falls
- St. Cloud
