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Mar 21, 2024 Web Exclusive By Mark Moody

Sticking with producer Brad Cook from Waxahatchee’s revelatory Saint Cloud, Katie Crutchfield continues her exploration of alt-country trails on Tigers Blood. With the proverbial horse already out of the barn, the album feels less of a new beginning and more so an affirmation of the comfort found in surrounding herself with those that share her same vernacular. MJ Lenderman, who was on board for Crutchfield’s tour with Jess Williamson as Plains, plays guitar throughout the album. But more importantly lends an air of world weary Appalachia on the handful of tracks where he provides harmony vocals.

Lead single, and album highlight, “Right Back to It,” benefits from Crutchfield’s crystalline vocals, which are buoyed by Phil Cook’s burbling banjo and Lenderman’s plaintive lower register. It’s an instant classic on par with the best of Gillian Welch’s work with David Rawlings. The album’s title track shares a similar dynamic and holds vestiges of the pointed details that brought Saint Cloud into such sharp focus. “You’re laughing and smiling, drove my jeep through the mud, your teeth and tongue red from tigers blood,” brings vivid imagery, where much of Tigers Blood works in broader strokes.

As has been her stock in trade, Crutchfield is as apt to turn the lens on herself as those around her. “My failure’s legendary babe,” she proffers on “Lone Star Lake,” but can equally throw the barb outwards a few lines later: “a girl like that would bore you to tears.” Songs such as “Crimes of the Heart” and “The Wolves” may not hold the life of Crutchfield’s best, but the overall experience of Tigers Blood is a fruitful one. Stinging guitar leads on “Bored” and “Crowbar” provide a shot in the arm, with “Bored” having an almost beckoning playfulness brought on by the quickly paced spoken-word verses. While the unadorned “365” showcases Crutchfield’s voice as one of the indie world’s strongest as well as its most vulnerable. Like the snow-cone flavor with which it shares a name, Tigers Blood is ultimately about the melding of its component parts into something unquestionably enticing rather than the analysis of its irretrievably mixed emotions. (www.waxahatchee.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10