I Walked with You a Ways Is Plains’ Love Letter to Country Pop’s Finest

While not all country singers are from the South, those who are share an understanding. Rural, blue-collar America isn’t confined to the stretch of states between Texas and Virginia, but Southerners come built with different hardware—not to mention the best biscuits, football teams, summer tomatoes and sunsets.

But simply cheering for an SEC team and shopping at the Piggly Wiggly do not a true Southerner make. It’s the deep appreciation for what makes the South different, and hence special, that burns hot in one’s blood. And those who are further blessed with the abilities to shape that feeling into melody make some of the finest country songs around. Katie Crutchfield, who was raised in Alabama and now lives in Kansas, and Jess Williamson, who hails from the Dallas suburbs, each possess this gift. The two singers, both accomplished solo artists in their own right, have joined forces for a new music project called Plains, and their debut album under the moniker is a rich assortment of country songs inspired by the greats—Dolly Parton, Lucinda Williams, Tanya Tucker, Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris, Tammy Wynette, The Judds, Faith Hill and so on—garnished with their individual distinct styles.

Crutchfield’s Waxahatchee project has taken many shapes over the years—lo-fi bedroom indie, searing punk rock and, most recently, golden-hued Americana and uninhibited, open-skied country, in the form of her acclaimed 2020 record Saint Cloud. It’s the latter of those that further manifests itself on I Walked. It’s clear Crutchfield wasn’t finished trying her hand at the country music she was raised on (she’s a noted Lucinda Williams superfan), and Williamson was the right person to join her in the chase. If Saint Cloud was Crutchfield’s cautious wading out into the waves of country music, then I Walked is a confident foray into not just the genre’s style, but that of its greatest achievers: Parton, Williams, et. al.

The steady hum of the suite of acoustic guitar, banjo and mandolin is the undercurrent of I Walked, from the chipper “Summer Sun” (in which the pair reminisce on getting drunk on “the back deck in the rain”—is there anything more Southern?) to saccharine country ballads “Last 2 On Earth,” “Bellafatima” and “Abilene,” a cousin of sorts to Parton’s hit “Jolene.” In the great tradition of country music, “Bellafatima” tells the story of a tough-as-nails Southern woman, in this case one who “swore like a dry county welder.” But where Williams was changing the locks and Reba’s “Fancy” was dancing her way to her family’s salvation, “Bellafatima” is just “hungry for someone to see” her soft side. The title track, too, features a peek into deeper feelings, when Crutchfield and Williamson pay tribute to those folks who are only in our lives for a “season,” but whose spirit lingers for life: “Well I’ll be better all my days ‘cause I walked with you a ways,” they sing.