Black Belt Eagle Scout is the one-woman project of Katherine Paul. The Portland-based musician grew up in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, a small Indian reservation in Washington. The experience is important to her identity, which she describes as “radical indigenous queer feminist.” Paul’s debut album Mother Of My Children was initially released last year via Good Cheer Records but is getting reissued this fall via Saddle Creek. “I wrote this album in the fall of 2016 after two pretty big losses in my life,” she said. “My mentor, Geneviève Castrée [known by most as the former wife of Phil Elverum and subject of Mount Eerie’s most recent two albums], had just died from pancreatic cancer and the relationship I had with the first woman I loved had drastically lessened and changed.” The album’s lead single and today’s song of the day, “Soft Stud,” focuses on “the hardships of queer desire within an open relationship." Mother Of My Children is due out September 14.
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Host Emily Fox and KEXP’s editorial team talk with artists about the stories behind their songs and the experiences that inform their work. Through each conversation, we uncover the humanity behind the music, allowing us to hear it in a whole new way.
