This is a personal artist spotlight on Waxahatchee by Virginia Werewoolf.
It was just this past summer that I was able to coerce Alabama singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield into trading her Don Giovanni released lo-fi debut “American Weekend” for a ten dollar Starbucks gift card after a stripped down set in a Richmond basement. A short year after that with fellow late arrivals, I shared a cigarette and a window sized view of Crutchfield singing to a little restaurant bursting at the seams during Harrisonburg Virginia’s MACRoCK festival.
Since then Crutchfield’s once solo project, Waxahatchee has grown to include electric instrumentation and high quality recording, while remaining incredibly mercurial and intimate. March marked the finish of the band’s sophomore album “Cerulean Salt,” which served as a transition from volatile bedroom wails to minimalist punk hymns that earned Waxahatchee some of its most positive critical acclaim yet. The receptive response also landed her a spot at Chicago’s ultra-popular Pitchfork Fest.
The most singular thing that should add to the very deserving bubble of hype surrounding Waxahatchee is the fact that after touring almost relentlessly, in the most low maintenance way imaginable for a musician—using only voice and an acoustic guitar—Crutchfield will take the stage at The Kennedy Theater with amps and all. Their set that Friday may not be the cozy and accustomed, acoustic performance the act is known for, but it will bring the same personal and powerful delivery with a much anticipated little-bit-extra.
Favorite Tracks: Be Good off “American Weekend,” and Swan Dive off “Cerulean Salt”
Playing: The Kennedy Theater, Friday from 12:00 a.m. – 1:00 a.m.