Photo Credit: Alysse Gafkjen
It’s no secret that I have a thing for folksy songs. The setup couldn’t be simpler – one person, few background instruments, and still air between us. There is also nowhere to hide. Here, I don’t need to be submerged by a wall of sound.
What I almost never tire of is that expansion of a voice hitting and lifting me like a perfectly timed wave, one that I can scramble to launch from, time and again. There is no strict need to overanalyze the melody, the hooks, etc. You just go with the flow until it drops beneath your feet and you go toes up into the sand with sea lions gawking at your inability to swim.
“Normal,” from Katie Pruitt‘s album Expectations, is one of these. It is authentic and heartfelt.