Jack Klatt

Jack Klatt, a Minnesota singer and songwriter immersed in American roots traditions, surfaced during the mid-2010s with an approach that mixed fingerstyle blues guitar, folk, country, and early rock. He maintained a close friendship and shared stylistic kinship with fellow Minnesotans the Cactus Blossoms, mirroring their habit of framing contemporary original songs in vintage trappings; this parallel course culminated on his third album, the 2019 release It Ain't the Same, where he shifted to a fuller, more resonant band presentation.

Raised in the Twin Cities, he gravitated toward music valued for its direct, unadorned appeal. An initial attraction to punk later steered him toward the sources that shaped his preferred acts, eventually tracing a line back to the earliest recordings of jug bands, country-blues, folk, and ragtime. Already steeped in those foundational sounds, he connected with Page Burkham and Jack Torrey, the brothers who supply close harmonies for the Cactus Blossoms. Their overlapping influences and sensibilities sparked a lasting rapport that included intermittent musical partnerships over the following years.

Love Me Lonely, his 2013 debut, captured an essentially live, analog session of solo acoustic country-blues pieces drawn from both original material and outside sources. Several years afterward came Shadows in the Sunset, a modestly expanded collection tracked inside a 100-year-old Wisconsin farmhouse under producer Tom Herbers (Jayhawks, Trampled by Turtles). Although the core remained spare, double bass, drums, and intermittent accordion and fiddle fleshed out the arrangements, earning widespread notice within roots circles.

Klatt then traveled to Chicago for his next project, enlisting a wider circle of players that included Cactus Blossoms members with whom he had also been performing live. Issued by Yep Roc, the 2019 album It Ain't the Same signaled a move toward a more substantial and polished full-band aesthetic.