Biography
Waxahatchee has moved through self-recorded solo efforts, introspective folk-rock, and louder full-band indie rock while keeping a deeply personal core. Songwriter Katie Crutchfield launched the project with the breakup-themed American Weekend in 2012 and strengthened her command of hooks and melodies on the John Agnello-produced Out in the Storm, her fourth album, issued in 2017. The following year she shifted to the minimal Great Thunder EP, which reworked songs from her side project with Swearin’s Keith Spencer, before settling into reflective folk-rock on 2020’s Saint Cloud and extending that Americana path with Tigers Blood in 2024.
The name derives from a lake near her parents’ Alabama home. Crutchfield began Waxahatchee as a solo outlet in 2011, first using the moniker on a split cassette with Chris Calvin. Having composed songs since her early teens, she had previously performed with twin sister Allison in the raw punk band P.S. Eliot. After that group ended amid a difficult breakup, she retreated to her family’s rural residence and captured the material that became the lo-fi debut American Weekend. Those candid tracks brought wider attention, prompting live appearances in Philadelphia, her new base.
Around the same period she formed the lo-fi duo Great Thunder with Keith Spencer, releasing Sounds of Great Thunder in 2012; he later joined Waxahatchee’s touring band on drums. Cerulean Salt, the more expansive yet still intimate sophomore album, appeared in March 2013 and earned largely favorable notices, featuring Spencer, Kyle Gilbride, Radiator Hospital’s Sam Cook-Parrott, and Allison. Great Thunder followed with the Strange Kicks EP and Groovy Kinda Love LP later that year, while Waxahatchee toured internationally and steadily built an audience.
In early 2015 the project moved to Merge Records for the U.S. release of the third album, Ivy Tripp, which arrived in April and marked Crutchfield’s first Billboard 200 entry. Working again with producer John Agnello, along with Allison, bassist Katherine Simonetti, drummer Ashley Arnwine, and additional musicians, she issued the defiant Out in the Storm in 2017, chronicling recovery from a toxic relationship. Her next project revisited Great Thunder material, re-recorded with producer Brad Cook and reduced to spare piano arrangements on the six-track Great Thunder EP, released by Merge in 2018.
Returning to the studio with Cook, she assembled a country-rock-minded fifth album using Bobby Colombo and Bill Lennox of Bonny Doon, Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman, and Elvis Perkins in Dearland’s Nick Kinsey. Saint Cloud emerged in March 2020 to broad critical praise. After contributing a cover of “Talking Dust Bowl Blues” to the 2021 Woody Guthrie tribute Home in This World, Crutchfield delivered the original El Deafo soundtrack for Apple TV+ in January 2022.
She continued collaborating with Brad Cook on Tigers Blood, recorded primarily at Sonic Ranch in Texas and featuring drummer Spencer Tweedy and guitarist MJ Lenderman. After the album’s release, Waxahatchee appeared on Futurebirds’ “Easy Company” and issued the single “Much Ado About Nothing.”
The name derives from a lake near her parents’ Alabama home. Crutchfield began Waxahatchee as a solo outlet in 2011, first using the moniker on a split cassette with Chris Calvin. Having composed songs since her early teens, she had previously performed with twin sister Allison in the raw punk band P.S. Eliot. After that group ended amid a difficult breakup, she retreated to her family’s rural residence and captured the material that became the lo-fi debut American Weekend. Those candid tracks brought wider attention, prompting live appearances in Philadelphia, her new base.
Around the same period she formed the lo-fi duo Great Thunder with Keith Spencer, releasing Sounds of Great Thunder in 2012; he later joined Waxahatchee’s touring band on drums. Cerulean Salt, the more expansive yet still intimate sophomore album, appeared in March 2013 and earned largely favorable notices, featuring Spencer, Kyle Gilbride, Radiator Hospital’s Sam Cook-Parrott, and Allison. Great Thunder followed with the Strange Kicks EP and Groovy Kinda Love LP later that year, while Waxahatchee toured internationally and steadily built an audience.
In early 2015 the project moved to Merge Records for the U.S. release of the third album, Ivy Tripp, which arrived in April and marked Crutchfield’s first Billboard 200 entry. Working again with producer John Agnello, along with Allison, bassist Katherine Simonetti, drummer Ashley Arnwine, and additional musicians, she issued the defiant Out in the Storm in 2017, chronicling recovery from a toxic relationship. Her next project revisited Great Thunder material, re-recorded with producer Brad Cook and reduced to spare piano arrangements on the six-track Great Thunder EP, released by Merge in 2018.
Returning to the studio with Cook, she assembled a country-rock-minded fifth album using Bobby Colombo and Bill Lennox of Bonny Doon, Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman, and Elvis Perkins in Dearland’s Nick Kinsey. Saint Cloud emerged in March 2020 to broad critical praise. After contributing a cover of “Talking Dust Bowl Blues” to the 2021 Woody Guthrie tribute Home in This World, Crutchfield delivered the original El Deafo soundtrack for Apple TV+ in January 2022.
She continued collaborating with Brad Cook on Tigers Blood, recorded primarily at Sonic Ranch in Texas and featuring drummer Spencer Tweedy and guitarist MJ Lenderman. After the album’s release, Waxahatchee appeared on Futurebirds’ “Easy Company” and issued the single “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Albums
Tigers Blood
2024
I Walked With You A Ways
2022
El Deafo (Apple TV+ Original Series Soundtrack)
2022
Saint Cloud +3
2021
Saint Cloud
2020
Out in the Storm (Deluxe Version)
2017
Out in the Storm
2017
Ivy Tripp
2015
Cerulean Salt
2013
American Weekend
2012
Singles
