The human condition. It is immeasurably complex, multi- faceted, beautiful and terrible, mournful yet joyous – and it has been an endless fountain of inspiration for artists through the ages. It is into this source that Tennessee-born singer-songwriter Kate Prascher taps with her debut full-length album Shake
The Dust. It takes an honest, raw look into human experience, especially the parts that, as Prascher sees it,
don’t usually make it into polite conversation: what happens to those left behind after a death, how do people feel tearing themselves free from unreciprocated love, what if we don’t feel fulfilled in life?
That doesn’t mean, however, that there isn’t also light. Sprinkled throughout Shake The Dust are scatterings of hope, second chances, and bold moves toward the future. Featuring the vast musical talent of Bobby Hawk (Taylor Swift), Bennett Sullivan (Bright Star), Nate Sabat (Mile Twelve) and Jason Borisoff (Cricket Tell the Weather), Shake The Dust takes us on a journey of emotional snapshots: We are pulled into a lively country dance in ‘Roving Rounder’, the banjo line inviting us onto the dance floor – before we realise that the lyrics tell a very different story, of a life unfulfilled, the singer looking to escape her past.
In ‘Mary Ellen’, we follow a woman breaking free from a partner who does not love her, the banjo marking the motion of the taxi as it carries her away. ‘Don’t Return’ explores the quieter hours after a break-up, the music swirling as darkly as the lyrics, passionate and bluesy. And in ‘Heart Like a Cage’, perhaps Prascher’s most personal track, the singer watches crows dancing in the empty sky as she struggles with fundamental questions at a time of transition in her life.
Prascher finishes with the sweet, light-footed ‘Back to Asheville’, in which she shakes off the dust of the past, of guilt and regret, and looks firmly to the future. Country folk, blues, and bluegrass shake hands in Shake The Dust, underpinned by Prascher’s wonderfully clear, pure vocals that exude a vulnerability reflected in the themes of her songs. It has been said of the album that “Kate Prascher doesn’t
want you to look at her. She wants you to see what she sees”. So why not lend her your ear – what do you see?
