Waxahatchee Previews ‘Saint Cloud’ Follow-up with “Right Back To It,” Featuring MJ Lenderman

Indie-Americana powerhouse Waxahatchee, aka Alabama-born, Kansas City-based singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, has finally announced the follow-up to her 2020-best album Saint Cloud. Her ANTI- Records debut Tigers Blood is due out on March 22, and she announced it with a bang this week, sharing the lead single “Right Back To It,” featuring Wednesday (and solo) indie-rock star MJ Lenderman, and announcing a 2024 tour in support of the album.

Saint Cloud will be a tough record to follow, but Waxahatchee is off to a hell of a start — Crutchfield’s collaboration with Lenderman sounds just as good in practice as it does on paper. “Right Back To It” is a rustic love song about a romance that persists in spite of all kinds of emotional ups and downs, enriched by vocal harmonies and electric guitar riffs from Lenderman, and percussion from Spencer Tweedy, as well as bass and banjo from producer Brad Cook and his brother Phil Cook, respectively. Crutchfield and Lenderman deliver their version of a classic country duet by the likes of Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons, their voices intertwining like a sonic manifestation of the unbreakable bond they describe.

Like two lovers who know just where they’re going — wherever, together — “Right Back To It” ambles along unhurried, with Crutchfield spilling her guts about all the internal upheaval that somehow still never knocks her and her beloved off their spot for long. This is clearest in the chorus, as Crutchfield and Lenderman harmonize, “I’ve been yours for so long / We come right back to it / I let my mind run wild / Don’t know why I do it / But you just settle in / Like a song with no end / If I can keep up / We’ll get right back to it.” The accompanying music video, directed by Corbett Jones and Nick Simonite, only reinforces the track’s idyllic sense of safety and unconditional love, as Crutchfield and Lenderman boat through a tranquil Texas bayou at sunset, without a doubt where they’ll end up.

“Right Back To It” was one of the first Tigers Blood tracks to come together, Crutchfield explains in a statement: “I wrote it backstage at Wolf Trap when I was on tour opening for Jason Isbell and Sheryl Crow. I’m really interested in writing love songs that are gritty and unromantic. I wanted to make a song about the ebb and flow of a longtime love story. I thought it might feel untraditional but a little more in alignment with my experience to write about feeling insecure or foiled in some way internally, but always finding your way back to a newness or an intimacy with the same person.”

Most of the tracks on Tigers Blood came together on this tour in late 2022, thanks to what Crutchfield recalls as a “hot hand spell.” She reunited with Saint Cloud producer Brad Cook and returned to the same studio to record it, the Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas—it wasn’t broke and she didn’t fix it, you might say.

Waxahatchee’s 2024 tour in support of Tigers Blood opens with a hometown show at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City on April 18, criss-crossing the country — including two Florida stops, in St. Petersburg and Orlando on May 3 and 4, respectively, as well as shows at New York City’s Beacon Theatre and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Palladium — before wrapping with a two-night stand in Philadelphia on Sept. 7-8. 

Tigers Blood is available for preorder now. See the full detail of the album below the Fresh Squeeze Playlist, along with Waxahatchee’s 2024 tour dates. Stream “Right Back to It” here.

Tigers Blood Tracklist:

1. 3 Sisters

2. Evil Spawn

3. Ice Cold

4. Right Back To It

5. Burns Out At Midnight

6. Bored

7. Lone Star Lake

8. Crimes Of The Heart

9. Crowbar

10. 365

11. The Wolves

12. Tigers Blood

Waxahatchee Tour Dates:

April 18 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater ^

April 19 – St. Paul, MN – Palace Theatre ^

April 20 – Chicago, IL – Salt Shed ^

April 21 – Detroit, MI – Majestic Theatre ^

April 23 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall ^

April 25 – New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place ^

April 26 – Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre ^

April 27 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount Theatre ^

April 28 – Richmond, VA – The National ^

April 30 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel ^

May 1 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium ^

May 3 – St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live ^

May 4 – Orlando, FL – The Beacham Theater  ^

May 5 – Atlanta, GA – Shaky Knees Festival

May 6 – Birmingham, AL – Lyric Theatre ^

May 8 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom ^

May 9 – Fort Worth, TX – Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall ^

May 10 – Houston, TX – The Heights Theater ^

May 11 – Austin, TX – ACL Live at the Moody Theater ^

May 13 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren ^

May 14 – The Observatory North Park – San Diego, CA ^

May 16 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium ^

May 17 – Paso Robles, CA – Barrelhouse Brewing Co. ^

May 18 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater ^

May 19 – Sonoma, CA – Gundlach Bundschu Winery ^

May 21 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot ^

May 23 – Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom ^

August 19 – Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall  %

August 21 – Fort Collins, CO – Washington’s %

August 23 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant %

August 24 – Madison, WI – The Sylvee %

August 25 – Kalamazoo, MI – Bell’s Beer Garden %

August 26 – Pittsburgh, PA – The Warhol at Carnegie Music Hall %

August 28 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre

August 29 – South Deerfield, MA – Tree House Summer Stage &#

August 30 – Portland, ME – State Theater &#

August 31 – Accord, NY – Arrowood Farms &#

September 1 – Asbury Park, NJ – Stone Pony Summerstage &#

September 6 – Vienna, VA – Filene Center – Wolf Trap &#

September 7 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore #@

September 8 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore  &+

^ w/ Good Morning

% w/ Tre Burt

# w/ Tim Heidecker

& w/ Snail Mail

+ w/ Greg Mendez

@ w/ Gladie