bright red from tigers blood
Hello hello!
Today I am so excited to share that my sixth album Tigers Blood is coming out on March 22nd via Anti- Records.
My dearest friend & closest collaborator Brad Cook and I started carving away at some of these songs and ideas in 2020, right as the pandemic settled in and my last record came out. We wandered through a maze of possibility of what this record could or should be, laughed, cried, programmed beats, shelved perfectly fine but ill-fitting pop songs, waxed poetic about the state of the music business, used words like “big” and “epic”, spinning our wheels in the name of a sense of responsibility to get it right.
Making and releasing Saint Cloud changed my life in so many ways. I felt completely unencumbered by any outside pressure to do or say or achieve anything specific or concrete while we were creating it. The level of impact it had on the people who love it was a beautiful surprise and is really what I am the most proud of in my life so far. In all the early discussions around following it up, Brad and I avoided the subject of fear or pressure, not wanting to give those feelings any power over what was to come. In the end, we decided the confident way to honor both what we’ve done together so far & this batch of new songs I had cooking, was to approach making this new album in the same way we did Saint Cloud.
Once Brad and I came to that decision, we made a plan in about 5 minutes. We would return to Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas with our engineer Jerry Ordonez, a small group of musicians and 12 songs to track band-in-a-room style. My friend MJ Lenderman was an early and extremely potent spice of a collaborator on Tigers Blood. I’d been listening to his songs on repeat & felt like elements in the world I saw him building with his own music might work well in my vision too. Brad and I both credit hearing Jake sing on an early demo of “Right Back to It” as a moment in which we understood what this record was supposed to be. I'm so grateful we followed the thread that led us to asking Jake to be involved & even more grateful he came along for the ride.
We also tapped Brad's brother Phil Cook and my dear friend Spencer Tweedy to join the band for the session. Both Phil and Spencer contributed so much to the Plains album and I had hoped to work with them both again as soon as possible. Phil is a wizard. He plays everything from harmonica through a baby practice amp to a dobro to every single piano or organ you hear on TB. He’s well-known to be the best musician in almost any room he walks in as far as I’m concerned.
Spencer is differently but equally magical and his performance on the album might be one of the main things that makes it unique to me. He has this sort of otherworldly ability to play to the moment without ever over-playing. His drum part rarely feels like a traditional part in that it’s always so human, seldom simple or black and white, emotional but not fussy. It’s not something I expected to care so much about, but now it's like the icing on the cake. Plus he sings!
This great group of people came together for almost 3 weeks to jam, record, overdub, eat, listen to music, talk about life & ultimately mix & leave with an almost finished album. It was an experience I'll never forget & a finished product I have been just bursting at the seams to share with you. I am just simply so proud of it.
I'll have a lot more to say about it in the coming weeks and months, I'm sure. The songs are dense and cover a lot of ground and I'm excited to finally talk about them. For now I'll leave you with a little info and a few more photos.
The first single is a song called “Right Back to It”, which features Jake & is available for streaming now. There is also an amazing music video for it here.
You can preorder the record now on my website!
& lastly - I’m going on tour! TBH this is the thing I might be the most excited about. Tickets go on sale this Friday, January 12th! Dates below & there are more coming so keep an eye out.
Until next time! XOXO,
KC
Thu Apr 18 - Kansas City MO @ Uptown Theater ^
Fri Apr 19 - St Paul MN @ Palace Theatre ^
Sat Apr 20 - Chicago IL @ Salt Shed ^
Sun Apr 21 - Detroit MI @ Majestic Theatre ^
Tue Apr 23 - Toronto ON @ Massey Hall ^
Thu Apr 25 - New Haven CT @ Toad's Place ^
Fri Apr 26 - Boston MA @ Orpheum Theatre ^
Sat Apr 27 - Brooklyn NY @ Brooklyn Paramount Theatre ^
Sun Apr 28 - Richmond VA @ The National ^
Tue Apr 30 - Asheville NC @ The Orange Peel ^
Wed May 1 - Nashville TN @ Ryman Auditorium ^
Fri May 3 - St Petersburg FL @ Jannus Live ^
Sat May 4 - Orlando FL @ The Beacham Theater ^
Sun May 5 - Atlanta GA @ Shaky Knees Festival
Mon May 6 - Birmingham AL @ Lyric Theatre ^
Wed May 8 - Tulsa OK @ Cain's Ballroom ^
Thu May 9 - Fort Worth TX @ Tannahill's Tavern & Music Hall ^
Fri May 10 - Houston TX @ The Heights Theater ^
Sat May 11 - Austin TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater ^
Mon May 13 - Phoenix AZ @ The Van Buren ^
Tue May 14 - San Diego CA @ The Observatory North Park ^
Thu May 16 - Los Angeles CA @ Hollywood Palladium ^
Fri May 17 - Paso Robles CA @ Barrelhouse Brewing Co. ^
Sat May 18 - Oakland CA @ Fox Theater ^
Sun May 19 - Sonoma CA @ Gundlach Bundschu Winery ^
Tue May 21 - Salt Lake City UT @ The Depot ^
Thu May 23 - Denver CO @ The Mission Ballroom ^
Mon Aug 19 - Boise ID @ Treefort Music Hall %
Wed Aug 21 - Fort Collins CO @ Washington's %
Fri Aug 23 - St Louis MO @ The Pageant %
Sat Aug 24 - Madison WI @ The Sylvee %
Sun Aug 25 - Kalamazoo MI @ Bell's Beer Garden %
Mon Aug 26 - Pittsburgh PA @ The Warhol at Carnegie Music Hall %
Wed Aug 28 - New York NY @ Beacon Theatre
Thu Aug 29 - South Deerfield MA @ Tree House Summer Stage & #
Fri Aug 30 - Portland ME @ State Theater & #
Sat Aug 31 - Accord NY @ Arrowood Farms & #
Sun Sep 1 - Asbury Park NJ @ Stone Pony Summerstage & #
Fri Sep 6 - Vienna VA @ Filene Center - Wolf Trap & #
Sat Sep 7 - Philadelphia PA @ The Fillmore # =
Sun Sep 8 - Philadelphia PA @ The Fillmore & +
^ w/ Good Morning
% w/ Tré Burt
# w/ Tim Heidecker
& w/ Snail Mail
+ w/ Greg Mendez
= w/ Gladie