Waxahatchee Takes on Dolly Parton, Lucinda Williams, and Bruce Springsteen for “Saint Cloud +3”

The three new covers appear on a deluxe version of “Saint Cloud.”
Waxahatchee Takes on Dolly Parton, Lucinda Williams, and Bruce Springsteen for “Saint Cloud +3”

The three new covers appear on a deluxe version of “Saint Cloud.”

Words: Margaret Farrell

photo by Molly Matalon

March 29, 2021

Last year, Katie Crutchfield, who releases makes music as Waxahatchee, released her excellent fifth album Saint Cloud. Today, she’s shared a deluxe version of the full-length that features covers of Dolly Parton’s “Light of a Clear Blue Morning,” Lucinda William’s “Fruits of My Labor,” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia.”

All three are great nods to her songwriting forebears, and each references the glimmers of vocal grit, windows to vulnerable settings (whether personal or outwardly observant), and gorgeous language that Crutchfield uses in her own writing. Her take on Springsteen hits right, singing about her longtime home, and when she sings of lavender from “Fruits of My Labor,” it’ll fit nicely next to the lilacs and wildflowers picked on Saint Cloud. Finally, when she recites with marbled grit the lines, “It’s been a long time / Since I’ve known the taste of freedom”—later cushioning with layered vocals, “Oh, everything’s gonna be alright / Everything’s gonna be okay”—on Parton’s “Light of a Clear Blue Morning,” it’s a nice morning distraction for a Monday in a pandemic.

Check all three covers out below.