By Pati deVries. Photo Credit: Karman Kruscke.
Pi Jacobs is thrilled to share her new video for "Coyote." The single is from her latest effort, Soldier On, to be released on April 26th by the Blackbird Record Label.
Born in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, Pi has spent the better part of two decades onstage and on the road, creating a rhythmic, rootsy sound as diverse as her upbringing. Raised on California country songs, blues standards, soul classics, and Laurel Canyon folksongs, she began playing bass at 15. She even studied the instrument in college, earning a double major in bass and vocal performance.
One thread throughout Pi's career has been her appreciation for good grooves, and she honours that long-time love with Soldier On. It's a joyous blast of blues, soul, and string-band stomp that shines brighter on Pi's bluesy interpretation of American roots music. It's her tenth release, capturing a longtime songwriter at the peak of her powers, delivering stories of resilience and endurance. At the same time, a hotshot band kicks up plenty of dust behind her. Co-produced with two-time Grammy nominee Eric Corne, Soldier On finds Pi looking inward, balancing some of her most personal songwriting to date with full-band performances that were tracked primarily live. The result is the best of both worlds: a rawly autobiographical album punctuated by groove and grit, caught halfway between the intimacy of Pi's writing and the collaborative chemistry of her stripped-down band.
About the "Coyote," Pi effuses, "Where I live in LA, there are a lot of wild coyotes. They constantly eat people's pets, and at night, you can hear them howling and hunting together. It's an eerie, chilling sound. One day, I was walking my dog, and a large coyote started following us. I tried to scare it, raising my arms, yelling, even throwing a stick at it (not to hit him, of course, to get him to go away). Not only was he not phased, but He also followed us all the way home. That night, this Coyote started hopping a 6-foot fence to come into our yard. The feeling of menace, of being stalked and feeling powerless, was overwhelming and connected with another situation in my life. A very dear friend was dealing with Cancer. For going on five years, she would endure treatments and be pronounced 'free of disease' only to have the cancer spring back up again and again, just like the Coyote stalking us. The metaphor hit me so hard that the song 'Coyote' just about wrote itself. I love that the song came out "happy," sounding as dark as the inspiration was. I love even more that I can tell you both my dog and friend are alive and well. Take that, Coyote!
From electrified rock & roll to rootsy Americana, Pi Jacobs has chased her unique muse throughout ten albums, gluing her catalog with bluesy, unforced vocals and sharply-observed songwriting. She's a traveler — a West Coast native who was born in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, bounced between hippie communes as a child, signed her first management deal in New York City, recorded 2017's A Little Blue in the Appalachian Mountains, and continues to split her touring between the US and Europe — and her music reflects that broad perspective.
FOLLOW PI JACOBS
Comments