It was in March 2018, when #TEAMw21 witnessed Katie Pruitt's London debut at The Union Chapel. Hailing from Athens, Georgia she immediately made an impact due to the time she spent from starting the guitar intro of her opening song and actually singing the first line. We noted at the time it was either nerves or supreme confidence - given what has passed since we'll go for the latter. It was a highly impressive performance "Wishful Thinking", "Ordinary", "Grace Has A Gun", "Georgia", "It's Always Been You" -were all aired and whatever merchandise she had with her on the night quickly sold out.
Her only released material at the time was a live EP and it fast became a firm favourite featuring live band versions of many of the songs we'd heard that night. Somehow over the intervening years we lost touch and so it was great to see her name appear on the bill for this years Long Road Festival and we could not have picked a better time to reacquaint ourselves with Katie as this year she has dropped one of the albums of the year so far in "Mantras".
From the opening slightly scuzzy guitar intro to "All My Friends" and the opening lines of
"Gold cross on your first communion
Got stoned at the school reunion
Moved away and unfriended the Jesus freaks
Tarot cards now you tell the future
Learned how on your Mac computer
Still putting your faith in something you can't see"
The memories of that early performance came flooding back -she has certainly changed though - she is even better than we remember!
There's so many gems to pick out it's a veritable crown jewels - the gritty "Self Sabotage" is followed by the almost laid back and dreamy "Leading Actress". There are childhood reminiscences on "Jealous Of The Boys" which shines a light on Katie's growing up. Pick any track and you simply will not be disappointed.
"Expectations" from 2020 featured studio versions of many of those songs we had originally heard that cold night in Islington, yet it was so much than that. It was a collection of songs that announced who Katie Pruitt was, and the journey she'd been on to reach that decision -which is spelled out with extreme honesty throughout,
The perfect Fleetwood Mac style of the title track forinstance and it's accompanying video announced the arrival of a major performing artist -
"Wishful Thinking" the opener, was afforded plenty of space, starting as a solo effort with the full band not kicking in until nearly two minutes in.
"Grace Has A Gun" remains as stirring a tune as it is a set of fascinating lyrics that paint a picture as well as any artist could do with a brush.
The sheer honesty of "Normal" and the joy of "Loving Her" all go to make this a special record.
Like it's successor you can't find a bad track
Katie Pruitt will be playing as part of the Loose Records takeover along with Brown Horse, Pearl Charles, Andrew Combs, Alan Power & The Take Twos and Kassi Valazza on Saturday. The Long Road website suggests Katie will be on The Front Porch Stage while the others will be at Buddy's Good Time Bar - so suggest checking nearer the time for exact details as this is one show you will not want to miss.