Katie Pruitt

With her powerful voice and strong narrative sense, Nashville singer/songwriter Katie Pruitt fuses rock grit with folk-driven storytelling, touching on themes like religion, LGBTQ issues, and mental health. Known for her dynamic live shows and emotionally direct writing style, she earned critical acclaim for a 2018 live EP and soon signed with Rounder to release her 2020 debut album, Expectations. Over the next few years, Pruitt continued to tour and began recording her follow-up album. The warmly arranged and deeply personal Mantras was released by Rounder in April 2024. Growing up in suburban Atlanta, Pruitt began playing guitar and writing songs during her teenage years as a form of self-expression. Initially drawn to rock and punk bands, she soon grew to love artists like Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt. Pruitt showed a distinctive talent for songwriting and developed a soulful and vocal style which she soon continued to work out on the local open-mike scene during her high school years. As a gay teenager in the conservative South, she wasn’t yet comfortable openly expressing these feelings in song, and would often change the pronouns to mask love songs she’d written about other girls. After heading to college in Nashville, she played in bands and began learning the ropes of the music industry, working out a more complete and more honest self-image in the process. A personal and critical breakthrough came with “Loving Her,” a love song that challenged norms and became an audience favorite, especially after the 2018 release of her OurVinyl Live EP, which she recorded on-stage with her band. She inked a deal with the Rounder label and released a studio version of “Loving Her” in 2019. It became the lead single from Pruitt’s debut album, Expectations, released in February 2020. The album earned her an Emerging Act of the Year nomination at the Americana Music Awards in 2020. That same year, she collaborated with Donovan Woods on his track “She Waits for Me to Come Back Down,” then covered Neil Young’s “Ohio” and “After the Gold Rush.” Following a 2022 cover of Lucinda Williams “Something About What Happens When We Talk,” Pruitt returned in late 2023 with “Blood Related,” her first new song in three years. Produced with Collin Pastore and Jake Finch (boygenius, Lucy Dacus) it was followed in early 2024 by “White Lies, White Jesus and You,” a poignant and charged examination of organized religion. More songs followed in the buildup to the April release of her second album, Mantras. ~ Timothy Monger