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Jun 11, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Sarah Cass Black Belt Eagle Scout

Black Belt Eagle Scout (aka Katherine Paul) has announced a new album, At the Party With My Brown Friends, and shared its first single, album opener “At the Party.” At the Party With My Brown Friends is due out August 30 via Saddle Creek. Listen to “At the Party” below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art, as well as her upcoming tour dates.

Paul is an indigenous queer musician who grew up in a small Indian reservation, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and is based in Portland. Her debut album, Mother of My Children, came out last September via Saddle Creek, so this is a quick turnaround for a sophomore album. Back in April she shared a video for a new song, “Loss & Relax,” that was #1 on our Songs of the Week list. Alas that song is not on the new album.

A press release describes the new album as such: “At the Party With My Brown Friends is a profound and understated forward-step. The squalling guitar anthems that shaped its predecessor are replaced by delicate vocals and soft keys, sentiments spoken and unspoken, presenting something shadowy and unsettling; a stirring of the waters. Paul recalls specific memories - an impromptu beach trip with her friend Haley Heynderickx, her eternal love for her mother, and leaving one love and desperately wanting to find another. The end result presents a captivating about-face that redefines Paul’s singular artistic vision.”

“At the Party” was written in Paul’s bedroom and a press release says it “is a reflection on self-navigation and the comfort that comes from a close-knit group of friends.”

Paul had this to say about the single in the press release: “Within my conscious self, there is always a sense of questioning the legitimacy of the world when you grow up on an Indian reservation. We are all at the party (the world), trying to navigate ourselves within a good or bad situation. I happen to be at the party with my brown friends- Indigenous, Black, POC who always have my back while we walk throughout this event called life.”

Read our interview with Black Belt Eagle Scout on Mother of My Children.

Read our 2018 politically themed interview with Black Belt Eagle Scout.

Read our review of Mother of My Children.

At the Party With My Brown Friends Tracklist:

1. At the Party
2. My Heart Dreams
3. Going to the Beach With Haley
4. Real Lovin
5. Run It to Ya
6. I Said I Wouldn’t Write This Song
7. Scorpio Moon
8. Half Colored Hair
9. You’re Me and I’m You

Black Belt Eagle Scout Tour Dates:

Thu. June 20 - Fri. June 21 - Calgary, AB @ Sled Island
Thu. July 11 - Abbotsford, BC @ Jam In Jubilee
Fri. July 26 - Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival
Thu. Aug. 1 - Sun. Aug. 4 - Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon
Sun. Aug. 25 - Port Townsend, WA @ Thing
Wed. Oct. 30 - Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater
Fri. Nov. 1 - Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
Sat. Nov. 2 - Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater
Sun. Nov. 3 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Tue. Nov. 5 - Memphis, TN @ The Hi-Tone
Sat. Nov. 30 - Detroit, MI @ Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
Sun. Dec. 1 - Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
Tue. Dec. 3 - Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia
Wed. Dec. 4 - Boston, MA @ Wilbur Theatre
Thu. Dec. 5 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
Sat. Dec. 7 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Sun. Dec. 8 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer

(October 30 - December 8 with Devendra Banhart.)

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