Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm
Hi From Pillows
Reviewed by: Jane Roser
With a sparkling, angelic voice reminiscent of Sarah McLachlan, Seattle/DC-based singer-songwriter Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm weaves a haunting tale of courage and helplessness in her debut EP, Hi From Pillows.
Finding herself barely able to function due to chronic pain and fatigue following a camping trip to West Virginia, Pruitt-Hamm spent several frustrating hours with doctors who either didn’t believe her or misdiagnosed her condition, which turned out to be late-stage Lyme disease. The debilitating condition her bedridden, but did not break her spirit or conviction. Recording Hi From Pillows mostly from her bed since she could barely sit upright for more than a few minutes, Pruitt-Hamm would take anywhere from two to twenty minutes to play the piano or sing until she collapsed from sheer exhaustion.
The first single, “Believe Her” was written as a sort of power anthem for survivors of misdiagnosed medical conditions and their struggle with doctors and insurance companies who fail them, disregarding their complaints as being all in their heads: “Look ’round the corner, there’s nobody coming. Open your mouth wide and take this for numbing. Listen to silence, there’s nobody screaming. If your ears are pounding girl, you must be dreaming.”
“Thorns” was written a year after Pruitt-Hamm began to receive treatment and started feeling better. Wanting to just put it all behind her, this song is about how it feels to have your body, which you depend upon to survive, suddenly fail and the uncertainty and fear which follows: “I live in a body surrounded by thorns and they wrap around limbs at the sound of a horn. Wherever I stand and wherever I fall, they come from under my skin and I crawl.”
Released by Local Woman Records and featuring musicians Conor Whelan (banjo, guitar, drums), Sam Price Waldman (drums), Kelly Servick (violin), Nick Stavely (bass) , Peter Larkin (bass) and Eduardo Rivera (electric guitar), Hi From Pillows is a beautifully written and delivered album which exemplifies the courage it takes to just be. To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, “what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
To help support Kaeley Pruitt-Smith’s medical treatment and listen to more of her music, please visit her Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/kph
Rating: Bad-Ass
