“Time Wasn’t Wasted”

Singer-songwriter Katie Pruitt is proof of the expression, “The truth will set you free.” After growing up in Georgia, where her LGBTQ+ lifestyle clashed with the Christian beliefs of her family and neighbors, she struggled with self-compassion and care. Yet by sharing her thoughts and fears through lyrics, she found a healthy way forward.

Through her 2020 debut album “Expectations” and 2024 follow-up “Mantras,” Pruitt explored the ghosts of her past with raw emotion. The Severna Park Voice caught up with Pruitt before her tour kicked off in September to talk about her Rams Head On Stage show on October 14 and her songwriting process.

SPV: Your tour kicks off September 4. Do you feel prepared for it?

K: Oh yeah, I started preparing. My friend Jess Nolan is opening, and we’ve been friends for 10 years and we’ve already started rehearsing, and we’re going to play a handful of new songs as well, so I’ve been practicing those and brushing up on my old songs. I’m going to try to play a sort of different set every night. I made these homemade tarot cards, and I basically assigned song titles to each card, so I’m going to have an audience member do a “Wheel of Fortune” thing where they pull a card and then we have to play whatever song they pull, so that will be fun and keep us on our toes.

I’m really excited. I haven’t done an acoustic headline tour, I think, ever. I have definitely gone out and played acoustic, but I’ve never done a full 90-minute set with just me and an acoustic guitar, so I’m excited for that.

SPV: Is that how your journey started, with an acoustic guitar? Your mom taught you some chords and then you played guitar for your friends at school?

K: Definitely, that’s how it started back in high school. I feel like lately, especially last year after I released “Mantras,” it was pretty much all full-band stuff, and this year I have been getting back to me playing an acoustic again and it’s fun. The song is kind of stripped away and it’s only just me, my voice, the guitar and the lyrics, so I feel like that helps me get to know the song and the emotion behind it a lot better. It’s nice to take all the other elements away sometimes.

SPV: Right, and Rams Head is an intimate venue that will allow your voice to resonate clearly and for the audience to connect with you. I’m sure most of the venues on the tour are the same way?

K: That’s exactly right, and I love Rams Head too. I’ve played there before, and I think I was with a band the last time I played. I’m excited to come back and play in that room. The room always sounds good, and people are extremely attentive and also engaged, so I’m excited.

SPV: I know you have to write for yourself and what you’re feeling because the music has to be authentic, but it has to feel rewarding that you wrote these songs based on what you were experiencing and people have approached you at shows and said, “This has helped me.” I think I read that was the case with you and the song “Georgia” where your mom understood what you were going through because of the lyrics in that song.

K: That song, in particular, has been really powerful, not only in my career but in my personal life. I have heard from other people at my shows that it’s helped them as well, and that’s insane to me. When I sat my mom down and said there’s this song on my record, this was my first record, I was referring to “Georgia.” I was like, “It’s kind of intense. I want you to know that I wrote it at a time when I was really hurting when you guys didn’t accept me.” I think by the time the record was coming out, they were turning a corner with it, so that also helped. But yeah, my mom was like, “I had no idea that you felt this way. And it’s made me reflect on how I acted as a parent.” It’s crazy.

There was a guy also at the show recently, like older southern guy, and my dad was at the show and he leaned over to my dad and was like, “I was the dad in ‘Georgia,’ and my dad was like, ‘Whoa, I guess so was I,’” It’s wild. People still come up to me and tell me stories about that song. It was a painful song to write, but I’m so glad I did. It’s an outlet for people, myself included.

SPV: Absolutely. Do you think you will have a favorite song to play during this tour? It could be a song from “Mantras,” “Expectations” or even something new.

K: Honestly, I feel like probably my favorites are going to be my new ones. There’s a song called “Blackout” that isn’t out yet that I’ve been enjoying playing, just me and an acoustic, It’s like an end-of-the-world love song vibe, but I’ve been enjoying playing that one recently and I hope it gets people excited about the old songs also, gets them pumped for the new record that is hopefully coming next year.

SPV: I know there are a lot of unexpected things that can throw kinks into that.

K: I’m trying not to say a time because we don’t know, but we are aiming for next year.

SPV: It must be cool to see your trajectory so far. I don’t know if you had a specific moment where it hit you? Like when you opened for Chris Stapleton at Mercedez-Bentz Stadium.

K: I did have the crazy experience opening for Brandi (Carlile) at Red Rocks – just me and my guitar and a friend, my tour manager, singing backup vocals. That was crazy because it was just the two of us singing to an entire sold-out Red Rocks, and it felt like I was singing in a 100-cap club. It felt that zeroed-in and locked-in with the crowd. It was that cool.

Other than that, is truly those moments when people come up to me and are like, “Yo, ‘Georgia,’ I sent that to my parents and it helped me. That helps me be like, “Oh cool. This isn’t in a vacuum. This is affecting people.” You can always get caught up in the TikTok, Instagram … of like measuring your success or your reach based off of that, which is so stupid, but it’s the fact that people are being affected by the music in real life, and the music has a life outside of me, is the coolest part. So anytime I’m reminded of that, it’s really rewarding and makes me want to keep doing it.

SPV: I’ve heard you express to that once you’ve created this music and then other people can add their interpretation to it based on how they feel, which I guess is how people interpret art sometimes … but now it’s out in the world. This is how you felt when you wrote the song, and now other people can interpret it and have their feelings added to it and how it affects them.

K: Absolutely, that’s why they call it releasing it, because once you release it, it’s no longer just yours. There’s definitely a precious moment for every songwriter when a song is just theirs and isn’t out where you do feel this extremely personal connection to the song, which is why you go to release it, but then to release it, it does become eventually become another song in your set list the more that you play it. It becomes this physical thing that you perform. And you’re still connected to it, but it’s the most special right after you write it and no one else has heard it or maybe one person has heard it. I’m always chasing that moment with a song.

SPV: Yeah and the way you write songs, like some of your influences — Brandi, Joni Mitchell, Jason Isbell – it’s not just we have a verse, a chorus. It’s tapping into how to structure the lyrics in an interesting way.

K: Yeah, it’s like the conventional first pre-chorus, chorus. It’s good to have if you’re like, “This is the song I want to write.” But if the song wants to go in another direction, you have to listen. Jason is a good example of that. Also, Ruston Kelly is another person who has been a really important friend and mentor in my life. He’s always breaking the rules of songwriting, which I admire. So yeah, I’m always trying to go to left field with it if I can.

SPV: Yeah, and I know you have collaborated with Ruston. What has that collaboration been like and with Jess, who is opening for you and you’ve been friends with for a long time.

K: We’ve been friends for like 10 years. It feels like we’re sisters. You know, people you’ve been friends with so long you’re like, “You’re family. We’ve passed the threshold of friends. You are family to me.” That’s Jess. I have always had openers who are friends and who I admire, but I’ve never had my best, best friend open a tour, so this is an exciting thing to be at the point where I can do that. I know people are going to love her music too, and she has inspired me so much through the years.

I want it to feel like people are walking into a living room where we are sitting, playing, talking and laughing. I want it to feel very interactive with the crowd, like they just came over for dinner and we’re playing some songs. We’re going to try to create that vibe.

SPV: Those are definitely good venues for it. I guess for anyone who is not familiar with Jess’ music, what about her music do you hope audiences will come to love?

K: Her voice is just so warm and inviting — that is the first thing I noticed about her when I heard her years and years ago. Her writing is truly incredible, and I feel like when I am listening to her song, I am going on a journey. It’s not necessarily a linear journey. I’m getting pulled in so many directions, but I’m along for the ride, so she’s also somebody who breaks the conventional rules of songwriting in a way that is like her own thing, kind of like a Joni Mitchell or a person who doesn’t do the classic pop song structure. She’s great, and I think people are going to dig what she does.

SPV: Is there anything else you want people to know?

K: I had a song just come out, called “Risk.” Other than that, I am really excited for this tour, and there’s going to be a couple more songs that come out around that.

SPV: What inspired “Risk” and its lyrics?

K: It’s about that nervous, hesitant feeling that you get in the beginning of a relationship. I’m like a year in of a new relationship after a very long-term relationship in my 20s, so it’s just about how falling in love is a risk, but it’s one of those risks in life that, if you don’t take it, you’re going to regret it. It’s like Wallace right in front of you; just do it for the experience and don’t stress about the outcome. It’s me talking myself into it, but I do like the song and it’s definitely a positive song, and I don’t write a ton of those, so it’s a rare breed of Katie Pruitt songs.