Katie Crutchfield
Katie Crutchfield (born 1989) is a singer, songwriter and founder of Waxahatchee, a solo project which has recorded and toured as a band.
Katie and her twin sister Allison performed together while at Oak Mountain High School and formed a rock band, The Ackleys, which released two albums on House of Love Records in 2005 and 2006. When that group split up, the Crutchfield's launched a new pop-punk group, P.S. Eliot, which released two albums on the Detroit, Michigan-based Salinas Records. That group split in 2011 as the members pursued other projects. Crutchfield also performed under the name King Everything.
Katie Crutchfield first used the name Waxahatchee , for Waxahatchee Creek where her family had a weekend cabin, for a home-made recording released on one side of a cassette entitled "Dragon", with Chris Clavin on the other. A full-length album, American Weekend, also recorded at home, was released by Don Giovanni Records in 2012. It was well-received by critics and named a top album of the year by Dusted magazine. The single "Be Good" was highlighted as the "song of the day" on National Public Radio. The second album, Cerulean Salt, reached no. 1 on the United Kingdom's Official Record Store Chart and led to a UK tour in 2013.
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. The 2017 album Out in the Storm added a full band, which has included Allison Crutchfield on keyboards, along with Katherine Simonetti on bass, Katie Harkin on guitar, and Ashley Arnwine on drums. Rolling Stone named it no. 14 of their 50 best albums of the year.
References
- Pelfrey, David (June 1, 2006) "The Ackleys: Local high school kids charm with musical charisma." Black & White
- Will (February 4, 2010) "Vinyl Corner: P.S. Eliot." Sound as Language
- Caramanica, Jon (September 2, 2012) "Allison and Katie Crutchfield: Twin rock dreams prevail." The New York Times
- Tyler-Ameen, Daoud (June 23, 2013) "Waxahatchee: A Lonesome Voice, Raised In Basements". The Record. NPR
- May, Jake (July 1, 2013) "A brief history of... Waxahatchee" DIY
- "50 Best Albums of 2017" (November 27, 2017) Rolling Stone