eTown Taping with Katie Pruitt and Tyler Ramsey and Carl Broemel

About This Event

About Katie Pruitt: 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. 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. 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 Expectations — an 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, Katie 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). About Tyler Ramsey and Carl Broemel: Having been friends and occasional touring partners for well over a decade, Asheville, NC-based singer-songwriter-guitarist Tyler Ramsey and My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel have at long last made their full-length recorded debut with Celestun out January 15. A marvel of interwoven musicianship and testament to the duo’s singular camaraderie, the album encapsulates the two veteran guitarist-songwriters’ mutual admiration and effortless compatibility as they swap and share nine new songs of dazzling dexterity and grace recorded almost entirely on acoustic guitars. Though their initial objective had been all instrumental, the natural flow of the sessions led the duo to begin incorporating vocal tracks. Stark yet intricately arranged songs such as the cinematic title track, “Flying Things” (featuring additional vocals from GRAMMY® Award-nominated singing siblings The Secret Sisters), and an incandescent version of Neil Young’s “Sail Away” are rich with dazzling dexterity and grace, Tyler’s nimble fingerstyle picking and Carl’s classically trained virtuosity aligning to create a predominantly instrumental song cycle of rustic beauty and atmospheric power. Music at its most elemental, Celestun sees Carl and Tyler stripping away artifice to unlock and explore deeply personal themes of wanderlust and familial love, of fellowship and communal adventure.