Birmingham Sloss Fest profile: Waxahatchee

Katie Crutchfield records and performs as Waxahatchee. (contributed)
Performer: Waxahatchee
Sloss Fest: Saturday, July 14, on the Steam Stage from 3 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.
Type of Music: Indie rock
About: Formed in 2010, Waxahatchee is led by Katie Crutchfield – one of the twin sisters from Birmingham who as teenagers performed jangly, churning indie rock as The Ackleys. More than a decade after The Ackleys played City Stages, Waxahatchee (named after a creek where her parents have a small lake house) visits Birmingham for Sloss Fest.
While Waxahatchee is Katie’s band, she and twin Allison Crutchfield’s musical careers have been intertwined since they started The Ackleys as 15-year-olds. They played together in P.S. Eliot, as well as Bad Banana and King Everything. Katie began performing as Waxahatchee, while Allison started the band Swearin’, which has disbanded. While Allison now releases songs under her own name, she plays keyboards and percussion in Waxahatchee.
The twins, and Waxahatchee, have garnered plenty of critical praise. A 2012 New York Times article noted that “separately they’ve made two of the year’s best and most affecting indie rock albums.” Rolling Stone magazine in 2017 referred to the Crutchfields as “two of their generation’s most skilled, affecting songwriters.” Also last year, NPR Music chose Waxahatchee’s fourth album, “Out In The Storm,” No. 41 of the top 50 albums of the year.
NPR’s Stephen Thompson wrote that in the five years since the group’s debut album, “Waxahatchee has polished its sound to a gleaming electrified shine. But on ‘Out In The Storm,’ Crutchfield’s words still tell bold hard truths – in this case directed both outward and inward in the aftermath of a hard breakup.”
In a news release about the record, Crutchfield said: “‘Out In The Storm’ digs into what I was going through without blinking. It’s a very honest record about a time in which I was not honest with myself.”
Her honesty – and anger – about the end of a “noxious relationship” come through in the record’s lyrics. In the album closer “Fade,” she sings:
You wring me out, I tell the truth
I feel amazing today
You interrupt, you yell in my face
But you finally hear me say
That I’ll walk
I’m walking away
I watched myself
Fade and fade
I laid down next to you
For three years shedding my skin
Dreaming about the potential
The person I could have been
Discography: “American Weekend,” “Cerulean Salt,” “Ivy Tripp” and “Out In The Storm.”
You might have heard: “Silver,” Never Been Wrong,” “Air,” “Under a Rock,” “Peace and Quiet” and “Be Good.”
For fans of: Liz Phair (www.lizphairofficial.com), Cat Power (www.facebook.com/CatPowerSun), Jenny Lewis (www.jennylewis.com), the Breeders (www.thebreedersmusic.com).
Social: Facebook (www.facebook.com/waxahatchee), Instagram (@waxa_katie) and Twitter (@k_crutchfield)
Sloss Music and Arts Festival takes place at the historic Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham July 14-15 and features more than 40 performers on four stages. Buy tickets here.