You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made.

I'm Rishi Kesh Hirway.

The Grammy nominations came out a couple weeks ago, and I was really happy to see that Waxahatchie's album, Tiger's Blood, which I've listened to a bunch this year, was nominated for Best Americana album.

It's her first Grammy nomination, and the news made me want to go back and listen to the episode

that I recorded with her back in the summer of 2020.

That was about the song, Fire, from her previous album.

So here it is, and I'll be back with a new episode next week.

Riders Block is something I experience with every record in one way, shape, or form.

I have the feeling of the universe allotted a certain number of songs, and I hit my quota.

Now I'm never going to write another good song again.

But usually the darkest moments of writer's block, right?

When it really gets hard and you're really kind of borderline panicking over it,

that's usually when you push through in my experience.

It's like I just kept putting one foot in front of the other,

kept doing the next thing.

And before I knew it, I wrote fire.

And it really felt like, okay, I got this.

It's going to be okay.

I'm Katie Crutchfield from Waxahatchee.

Katie Crutchfield is a singer and songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama.

She's been making music under the name Waxahatchie

since 2010. Her fifth album, St. Cloud, came out this past March. Pitchfork named it Best New

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