Cathing a few bad breaks is one thing, but imagine if your record label folded and right when you’re about to play the prestigious Stagecoach Festival in Spring 2020…well you know the story. Dominque Pruitt was on the short end of this musical stick, yet we can bet her shag-carpeted neon light-hued rock with surf guitar, twangy vocals, and pop splendor would sound damn perfect out via Palm Springs way.
Pruitt was born into a musical legacy — her father Larry Brown once played in The Association and Smothers Brothers before joining Engelbert Humperdinck in the ‘80s, and mother Anne-Marie Brown sang with The Babys and Jon Waite. Pruitt is charting a path of her own with her new EP Praying for Rain due for release on 7/21. Pruitt pays homage to the sounds of her youth while paving her own singular and refreshing trail forward.
Produced and co-written by Joseph Holiday, Praying for Rain trills the universal story of the struggle to follow a dream, set to a stylistic medley of spaghetti western, rockabilly, classic country, and surf rock (with a murder ballad for good measure).
The ghost of Laura Palmer is watching over me in the vocal booth,” says Pruitt. “My producer Joseph Holiday is obsessed with David Lynch and Twin Peaks, so there were lots of Twin Peaks memorabilia in the booth with me. We lit candles during the sessions (obviously!) and I’d sing to Laura’s picture. It was a *VIBE*, for sure.”
Along with the Praying For Rain EP announcement, Glide is premiering the rock n roll spaghetti western flair of “High In The Valley.” Pruitt combines an echoey chamber that oozes with seduction and temptation atop some magnetic instrumentation that might make for the best musical scenes ever.
Pruitt’s influences are vast yet she points more toward the cinematographic on her choices. “Marty Robbins writes these winding Western tales. I will forever live for the sound and vibe of Nancy Sinatra’s music (and definitely including everything she did with Lee Hazelwood). And I’m often writing as though I’m setting the scene for a new Tarantino movie. Hopefully one of these days I’ll make that happen,” adds Pruitt.”
