Okay, frankly, I still have issues with getting an unassociated earworm when I think of this project’s name; on her last album, Miranda Lambert had a song called “Waxahachie”, which references Waxahachie, Texas. Waxahatchee, on the other hand, is a solo musical project by Kathryn Crutchfield, of Birmingham, Alabama, and its name references Waxahatchee Creek, a popular 21-mile-long tributary of the Coosa River in central Alabama, between Birmingham and Montgomery.
As this is the first time I have covered Waxahatchee or Crutchfield, I think it’s important to underscore her prolific versatility. Along with her sister, Allison, Crutchfield started her first band, The Ackleys, in high school; when everybody split to go to different colleges, the sisters essentially reformed a new band, P.S. Eliot, which was an explicitly feminist Indie Rock and Pop Punk act. After two albums, the band broke up in 2011, and the sisters started up their own separate acts:
Waxahatchee for Katie, an Indie Rock/Folk and Country solo project;
Swearin’ for Allison, an Indie Rock and Punk band based in Philadelphia.
Tigers Blood1 is the sixth full-length outing for Waxahatchee. Alongside the six releases for her main project, Crutchfield has released an album with fellow southerner and Indie Folk vocalist Jess Williamson under the name Plains. She has also recorded music with her significant other, Kevin Morby (ex-Woods, ex-The Babies), both covers and originals.
All of this is to say that Crutchfield is a creative whirlwind, which likely explains why she seems to have a cult following. I’ve seen her name (well, “Waxahatchee”) crop up more and more often in different circles over the last several years. Naturally, I felt it was time to give her a try.
The album is dominated by this unique blend of Country, Folk, and Indie Rock. The music found here could not comfortably fit solely into any of those genres, and I suspect that various listeners with their various preferences will interpret this blend entirely differently. Some songs do lean more in one direction than another, such as “Right Back to It” feeling more like downtempo country with its acoustic banjo lingering in the background. There are also tracks with poppier hooks, such as “Ice Cold” and “365”, though the former’s reliance on a looping melody quickly grows too repetitive to be wholly enjoyable after two listens.
Aside from “Ice Cold”, though the songs which comprise Tigers Blood are all excellently crafted, unique, and sometimes just fun. “Bored”, in particular, stands out for that last point — it’s easily one of the best tracks on the album. As good as they sound, though, the real triumph on Tigers Blood is the poetry. Seriously, here’s a link to the Genius page for the album; check any song. You’ll find that each song has its moments of brilliance as Crutchfield wends her way through various stories from her childhood and adolescence.
I still need more time with Tigers Blood. That much is readily apparent. Trying to decipher and digest this album in a hurry hasn’t worked. But I definitely like it, and the quality is there. So I’m going to sit on this one longer in order to fully explore its intricacies.
Rating: Teal
The album’s title comes from a snow cone flavor, Crutchfield has stated: “…strawberry and coconut mixed together.”