Waxahatchee

Katie Crutchfield took the Waxahatchee name from a creek near where she grew up in Alabama. She and her twin sister Allison played in the punk band P.S. Eliot before she began recording alone, and the first Waxahatchee album, "American Weekend," was made at home on a four-track during a snowed-in week. The records that followed grew louder and more full-band, then reversed course.

"Saint Cloud," released in 2020 after Crutchfield got sober, is built on plain electric guitar, upright bass and her unmasked drawl. She followed it with "Tigers Blood," recorded with guitarist MJ Lenderman, and made a duo album as Plains with Jess Williamson. She sings high and slightly cracked, and tends to keep the arrangements sparse enough to hear the words.