Nick Hexum with Water Tower
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Gates: 6:30PM / Doors: 7:30PM / Show: 8:00PM
Nick Hexum
Katie Pruitt is living proof of music’s power to transform the way we experience the world. Soon after the arrival of her acclaimed debut Expectations—a 2020 LP on which she documented her journey in growing up queer in the Christian South—the Georgia-bred singer/songwriter/guitarist heard from countless listeners that her songs had impacted their lives on an elemental level. “A lot of people told me how the record helped them navigate their relationships with family—I even had some parents tell me that it helped them understand their children better,” she recalls. With her sophomore album Mantras, the Nashville-based musician now looks inward to explore such matters as gender identity, self-compassion or the lack thereof, and the struggle for peace in times of chaos and uncertainty—ultimately arriving at a body of work that speaks to the strength in undoing harmful self-beliefs and fully living your truth.
“One of the big themes of this record is the idea of building a home inside yourself rather than seeking it in others,” says Pruitt. “Over the past couple years I’ve tried to change the way I speak to myself and turn my negative internal dialogue into a kinder voice, because that ends up influencing everything: the kindness starts with us and ripples outward into the world. Mantras is about finding that light within ourselves instead of falling into the trap of chasing validation from our parents or friends or religion or social media.”
Mainly produced by Collin Pastore and Jake Finch (both known for their work with boygenius and Lucy Dacus), Mantras delves deeper into the empathetic storytelling and incisive self-examination that defined Expectations—an album that earned Pruitt a nomination for Emerging Artist of the Year from the Americana Music Association, in addition to drawing 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. “Most of this record came from Collin, Jake, and I tracking everything in their studio—this tiny little shed filled with a whole bunch of fun musical toys,” says Pruitt, who also created the album with musicians like string arranger Laura Epling (Orville Peck, Spencer Cullum). “We built the tracks from the ground up as opposed to cutting everything live, which gave us so much more room to let the songs evolve and become what they needed to be.”
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 (from the opening lines: “Gold cross on your first communion/Got stoned at the school reunion/Moved away and unfriended the Jesus freaks”). “I wrote that song thinking about how everybody’s trying to find the thing that grounds them and gives them clarity and purpose, like how all these ex-Christian kids I know are getting into horoscopes and astrology,” says Pruitt. “Maybe in some cases you don’t agree with or understand someone else’s beliefs—but if it makes them a kind, happy, loving person, then what’s the harm?”
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Water Tower
Water Tower is the current moniker of multi-instrumentalist Kenny Feinstein’s musical brainchild, originally founded in 2005 in Portland. While their lineup has evolved over time, fueled by Feinstein’s masterful song-crafting, fiercely DIY approach, and genre-bending sonic identity, Water Tower have established themselves as a global force to be reckoned with.
Pioneers of a new wave of bluegrass and old-time with a distinctly punk rock flair, Water Tower take influences from Foghorn Stringband and Bill Monroe to Rancid and Black Flag, passing them through a unique lens that magnifies the individual strength of their core and auxiliary members while remaining faithful to the revivalist spirit.
In 2015, the band moved to LA, where their current lineup of Kenny Feinstein (lead vocals, guitar, fiddle, mandolin), Tommy Drinkard (banjo, vocals), Taylor Estes (Bass, Vocals), Jesse Blue Eads (banjo, vocals) and John Seltzer (mandolin) can often be found busking while not in the studio or on tour.
Since then, Water Tower have built major momentum, releasing a concept album Fly Around (ft. guest vocals from Black Flag’s Ron Reyes and produced by Don Bolles of The Germs), filming 1m+ view viral videos, and catching the eye of A-listers including Katy Perry, whose 2023 NYE party they played at, and Andy Frasco, who shouted out “Take Me Back”, the debut single from their album Live from Weiser. Most recently they have been writing for and backing up artists such as Nick Hexum (311) to Acacia Forgot (from Rupaul's Drag Race). Most recently they played the Vans Warped Tour as well as The Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
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Nick Hexum
Katie Pruitt is living proof of music’s power to transform the way we experience the world. Soon after the arrival of her acclaimed debut Expectations—a 2020 LP on which she documented her journey in growing up queer in the Christian South—the Georgia-bred singer/songwriter/guitarist heard from countless listeners that her songs had impacted their lives on an elemental level. “A lot of people told me how the record helped them navigate their relationships with family—I even had some parents tell me that it helped them understand their children better,” she recalls. With her sophomore album Mantras, the Nashville-based musician now looks inward to explore such matters as gender identity, self-compassion or the lack thereof, and the struggle for peace in times of chaos and uncertainty—ultimately arriving at a body of work that speaks to the strength in undoing harmful self-beliefs and fully living your truth.
“One of the big themes of this record is the idea of building a home inside yourself rather than seeking it in others,” says Pruitt. “Over the past couple years I’ve tried to change the way I speak to myself and turn my negative internal dialogue into a kinder voice, because that ends up influencing everything: the kindness starts with us and ripples outward into the world. Mantras is about finding that light within ourselves instead of falling into the trap of chasing validation from our parents or friends or religion or social media.”
Mainly produced by Collin Pastore and Jake Finch (both known for their work with boygenius and Lucy Dacus), Mantras delves deeper into the empathetic storytelling and incisive self-examination that defined Expectations—an album that earned Pruitt a nomination for Emerging Artist of the Year from the Americana Music Association, in addition to drawing 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. “Most of this record came from Collin, Jake, and I tracking everything in their studio—this tiny little shed filled with a whole bunch of fun musical toys,” says Pruitt, who also created the album with musicians like string arranger Laura Epling (Orville Peck, Spencer Cullum). “We built the tracks from the ground up as opposed to cutting everything live, which gave us so much more room to let the songs evolve and become what they needed to be.”
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 (from the opening lines: “Gold cross on your first communion/Got stoned at the school reunion/Moved away and unfriended the Jesus freaks”). “I wrote that song thinking about how everybody’s trying to find the thing that grounds them and gives them clarity and purpose, like how all these ex-Christian kids I know are getting into horoscopes and astrology,” says Pruitt. “Maybe in some cases you don’t agree with or understand someone else’s beliefs—but if it makes them a kind, happy, loving person, then what’s the harm?”
------
Water Tower
Water Tower is the current moniker of multi-instrumentalist Kenny Feinstein’s musical brainchild, originally founded in 2005 in Portland. While their lineup has evolved over time, fueled by Feinstein’s masterful song-crafting, fiercely DIY approach, and genre-bending sonic identity, Water Tower have established themselves as a global force to be reckoned with.
Pioneers of a new wave of bluegrass and old-time with a distinctly punk rock flair, Water Tower take influences from Foghorn Stringband and Bill Monroe to Rancid and Black Flag, passing them through a unique lens that magnifies the individual strength of their core and auxiliary members while remaining faithful to the revivalist spirit.
In 2015, the band moved to LA, where their current lineup of Kenny Feinstein (lead vocals, guitar, fiddle, mandolin), Tommy Drinkard (banjo, vocals), Taylor Estes (Bass, Vocals), Jesse Blue Eads (banjo, vocals) and John Seltzer (mandolin) can often be found busking while not in the studio or on tour.
Since then, Water Tower have built major momentum, releasing a concept album Fly Around (ft. guest vocals from Black Flag’s Ron Reyes and produced by Don Bolles of The Germs), filming 1m+ view viral videos, and catching the eye of A-listers including Katy Perry, whose 2023 NYE party they played at, and Andy Frasco, who shouted out “Take Me Back”, the debut single from their album Live from Weiser. Most recently they have been writing for and backing up artists such as Nick Hexum (311) to Acacia Forgot (from Rupaul's Drag Race). Most recently they played the Vans Warped Tour as well as The Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
Get Tickets
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