photo credit: Johnny Eastlund
Written by Ashley Paskill
We can all remember March of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was just starting up and the world was shutting down. Unfortunately, for many musicians, this meant touring new material was put on hold for a while. Luckily, things have improved and concerts are happening again, even though there are a few safety measures such as vaccination and mask requirements.
Waxahatchee, featuring Katie Crutchfield, will be performing at Union Transfer in Philadelphia on April 10 and 11, 2022. She had just released her newest album, Saint Cloud, in the spring of 2020 in the midst of the shutdowns. She is performing songs off of Saint Cloud at long last.
Waxahatchee is from Alabama, and Crutchfield got the name from a creek near her hometown. She started performing as Waxahatchee in 2010 and has had much success since. “Can’t Do Much,” a song off the 2020 album release, even landed on Barack Obama’s Favorite Songs of 2020 list.
The album was written in 2018 and recorded in the summer of 2019. The 11 songs deal with topics from romantic love to overcoming addiction and tell of various journeys, both literal and metaphorical. The songs of the album have different styles, with nods to classic country, modern, and folk. The album was released on March 27, 2020, as the world was shut down.
The New Yorker described the album as “A talisman of the self-isolation era… Saint Cloud evokes a sense of freedom and belonging that has been elusive in this era of constraint and distance.”
Waxahatchee is currently on tour with a variety of special guests. She is coming to Philadelphia’s Union Transfer on April 10 and 11 of this year.
Brooklyn Vegan caught a performance of the recent tour dates and said “[Waxahatchee] has the ease of a road-seasoned group and sounded fantastic bringing her songs to life, particularly the Saint Cloud material, which is among her strongest yet. From the pure jolt of energy that came as the band all joined in together, it became abundantly clear to all that they’d been waiting for this moment just as anxiously as we had.”
For Philadelphia’s tour dates, Madi Diaz is the opening act, and during previous shows this tour, she played songs off her latest album, Same History, New Feelings, which was released earlier this year. She was born in Connecticut and grew up in Pennsylvania. Diaz’s music has touches of folk, country, and pop, and she cites Patty Griffin and Lori McKenna as her influences.
RVA described Diaz’s setlist as “vulnerable, quiet tunes, ones that only necessitated a single drummer/keyboardist and Diaz‘s lone guitar.”
Aside from the tour venues, Waxahatchee has recently performed her songs on the likes of Jimmy Kimmel Live and CBS This Morning. She also wrote and sang the song, “Tomorrow,” for Apple TV+’s original show, El Deafo.
For Crutchfield, Saint Cloud is a representation of how much she has grown and really highlights her journey of getting sober. The lyrics highlight places she has been and there is optimism in her lyrics. This has resonated not only on the album but on her recent tour.
RVA cites this growth, saying “The flora seeming to grow up the band’s equipment and the cautious optimism of Crutchfield’s lyrics only served to highlight the signs of life elsewhere inside the National.
For Waxahatchee‘s upcoming shows at Union Transfer in Philadelphia, those attending the show are required to show proof of their COVID-19 vaccinations at the request of the artist. Both shows, on April 10 and 11, are sold out. The doors open at 7 pm and the show starts at 8 pm.
If you go:
Venue: Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St., Philadelphia
Time: 8 pm
Tickets: Sold out
You can read about the venue’s COVID-19 policy here.
