I’ll start with the bad. I wish Kathryn Legendre’s EP, Making It Up, was a full album. These five songs are essentially perfect and the only thing that would make them better is if there were five more. Legendre’s neo-traditional country glides between hilarity and sorrow with the ease of a slide down a pedal steel guitar string (of which there’s plenty, by the way.)
Legendre’s songwriting hits that sweet spot of wry wisdom necessary to hold those proverbial three chords together and keep things interesting. “Going Crazy” starts the EP on a light note while delving into a heavy topic. It sets the tone: Legendre brings a mix of vulnerability to her humor, taking the edge off both. “Making It Up,” the EP’s closer, is a jaunty statement of the self. While the has a far-out introduction, there’s nothing about Making It Up that suggests it’s chasing any trends — particularly “cosmic country,” which I personally find refreshing. It’s an emphasis on Legendre’s central thesis: she’s going to do the things she intends to do them, trends be damned. For me, though, the high point on the EP was “Letters From Prison” — which will make you crack a smile, at the very least.
For what it’s worth, I don’t typically use Spotify to find new music. But I let it cruise after Making It Up ended and I’ve found a whole bunch of other Texas country singers that I can’t wait to share with you on the podcast over the summer.