Katie Pruitt

Katie Pruitt is living proof of musics power to transform the way we experience the world. Soon after the arrival of her acclaimed debut Expectationsa 2020 LP on which she documented her journey in growing up queer in the Christian Souththe Georgia-bred singer/songwriter/guitarist heard from countless listeners that her songs had impacted their lives on an elemental level. With her sophomore album Mantras, the Nashville-based musician now looks inward to explore suchmatters as gender identity, self-compassion or the lack thereof, and the struggle for peace in times of chaos and uncertaintyultimately arriving at a body of work that speaks to the strength in undoing harmful self-beliefs and fully living your truth.Mainly produced by Collin Pastore and Jake Finch (known for their work with boygenius and Lucy Dacus), Mantras delves deeper into the empathetic storytelling and incisive self-examination that defined Expectationsan album that earned Pruitt a nomination for Emerging Artist of the Year from the Americana Music Association and drew praise from major outlets like Rolling Stone (who hailed Pruitt as a dynamic new presence) and Pitchfork (who noted that [h]er songs are patient but determined, navigating serious subjects with quiet familiarity). This time around, Pruitt sets her lived-in lyricism to a folk-leaning sound informed by her love for the more experimental edges of indie-rock, stacking her songs with plenty of propulsive grooves and overdriven guitars as well as working with musicians like string arranger Laura Epling (Orville Peck, Spencer Cullum).Although several songs took shape with the help of co-writers like singer/songwriter Ruston Kelly (Bethany Cosentino, Amanda Shires), Pruitt wrote most of Mantras on her own and imbued her lyrics with an expansive element of autobiography. In penning the album-opening All My Friends (Are Finding New Beliefs), she mined inspiration from a Christian Wiman poem of the same name, dreaming up a fuzzed-out and summery track etched with both self-aware reflection and sharp-witted observation on the search for clarity and purpose. Next, on White Lies, White Jesus and You, Pruitt shares a hazy yet frenetic meditation on hypocrisy in religion, tapping into her intense frustration with conservative Christian ideology. A profoundly introspective album, Mantras turns the lens on her own inner life with songs like Self Sabotagea gloriously cathartic track that opens up about her struggle with negative thought loops. Meanwhile, on Blood Related, Pruitt presents a raw but poetic rumination on how family can sometimes feel like strangers, enlisting hermother as a background vocalist and embedding the track with audio recordings of her father and brother from old home videos. And while Mantras often pushes into emotionally heavy terrain, its songs frequently echo the radiant sense of joy and discovery that defined the album-making process. On Naive Again, for instance, Pruitt infuses the bright and dreamy tones of glockenspiel and xylophone into her melancholy contemplation on loss of innocence.