Kate Coleman may be front and center in Run Katie Run, but the band’s new album, Cowboy Boots with Fishnet Tights, due out April 28, deeply reflects the community surrounding her. Its 13 Americana/roots-rock tracks cover the good, the sad, the inspired, and the tired — and everything in between — about relationships of all kinds. A few of the songs, in fact, are true stories starring Kate’s family members.
Kate wrote most of the album, the quintet’s first full-length, within a couple weeks. “Reflecting on my relationships was clearly what was driving me, even if I didn’t know it at the time,” she says. Shortly thereafter, while Run Katie Run were experiencing new career highs, Kate’s paternal grandfather —the guitar-playing Pap in “Pap Song” — and Run Katie Run guitarist Corey Coleman’s stepfather, Kate’s father-in-law, who inspired “Don’t Live Patiently,” both died.
“I really struggled, actually, with understanding how so many horrible things can happen at the same
time as so many wonderful things,” Kate admits, “and I think looking at the relationships in my life
helped me with that a little bit.”
Similarly ripped from the pages of Kate’s life are “This Is All Your Fault,” in which she plays matchmaker for her cousin and a longtime friend, and “Fight the Fights,” inspired by a dream she had about her late maternal grandparents. Others, such as the feisty “I’ve Been Called Worse,” co-written with Kira Annalise and Hailey Fletcher, and the break-up heartbreaker “What’s Mine, What’s Yours?” are story-oriented but culled from multiple moments and experiences.
Cowboy Boots with Fishnet Tights also includes Run Katie Run bassist Stephen Quinn’s first songwriting contribution to the band. He originally recorded “The Art of Being Miserable,” a play on the well known proverb “misery loves company,” with his band Highbeams, which also featured fellow Run Katie Run members Adam Pendlington (guitar, banjo player) and Ian Pendlington (drums).
“I’m a Highbeams fan, so I was like, ‘That song would be perfect!’” Kate recalls. “I respect songs so much, so when someone says, ‘Hey, I have this song that I think would fit; I want to hear your take on it,’ that’s very precious to me. I take it very seriously.”
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To add to their “comfortable, warm, and inviting” sound (Vents Magazine), Run Katie Run enlisted two new friends, fiddle player Sarah Cammisano- or Sarah Jean - and mandolin player Addie Levy, to play on both “The Art of Being Miserable” and “Fight the Fights.” The band met the two fellow musicians while performing at Dollywood and “knew they would bring so much energy,” Kate explains.
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“I joke all the time that when I have the money to add two more band members, they’re in,” she adds.
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Kate, meanwhile, shares a lesser-known talent at the close of Cowboy Boots with Fishnet Tights. “Probably Won’t,” the album’s final track, uses her tap dancing as percussion. “I heard it as I was writing the song and just knew that was going to happen there. Why is that any different than adding percussion like a tambourine or a shaker?” says Kate, who was a dedicated dancer throughout her childhood, won gold medals at several tap competitions, and majored in dance in college. She hopes to incorporate the solo into Run Katie Run’s live show, but she admits she’s a little rusty and will need more practice first.
Like the band’s 2021 EP, Running on Love, Run Katie Run’s new album was an all-hands-on-deck affair. As the band recorded throughout 2022, the five friends who first met at an open mic night in Georgia arranged and produced the album together, with Corey as their engineer and Ian as their mixer. Kate says she could see their trust in each other — and their friendships — grow as the months went by. “We are a different band now. We know our roles, we know what we bring to the table, and that feels really good. There’s no awkwardness anymore when it comes to throwing out ideas,” Kate reflects. “Music has only brought the five of us closer as friends and musicians, which feels like a dream come true.”
The Colemans’ duo Kate and Corey and Quinn and the Pendlingtons’ band Highbeams became Run Katie Run after Kate asked the guys to back her as she recorded her 2018 album, Past. As she booked shows to promote the record, she suggested that instead of her going it alone, they become a full- blown band.
“It’s not lost on me how grateful I have to be for this group,” Kate says. “You hear such tragic stories about bands not working out because they just can’t interpersonally get it together, and I am so unbelievably grateful for these guys. We are friends first and a band second, and I think that’s why it keeps staying good because that’s more important than anything.”
