Black Belt Eagle Scout announces album with lead single “My Blood Runs Through This Land”

Katherine Paul (Black Belt Eagle Scout) has announced a new album titled The Land, The Water, The Sky, scheduled for a February 10 arrival via Saddle Creek Records. She shared the news of her forthcoming endeavor today (November 16) alongside its lead single, “My Blood Runs Through This Land.” The new song and “Don’t Give Up,” the project’s only pre-announcement offering, bookend the record.

Paul, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, has always drawn strength from and taken pride in her heritage and identity. Her last LP, 2019’s At the Party with my Brown Friends, celebrated the family — both blood relatives and chosen ones — with whom she navigates the modern world. During 2020’s COVID lockdown, as the world grew increasingly difficult to navigate, she returned to her literal roots, grounding herself in the soil upon which her ancestors once walked.

“I created The Land, The Water, The Sky to record and reflect upon my journey back to my homelands and the challenges and the happiness it brought,” Paul explains in a press release.

Today’s track is a slow-simmering ballad that boils over into a cathartic chorus full of crashing drum fills, tremolo guitars, and wordless vocal harmonies. “‘My Blood Runs Through This Land’ is about the connection I have with my ancestors,” she writes. “When I run my hands through the rocks at Snee Oosh beach and dip my fingers into our waterways, I am reminded of where I come from. Paying attention to all of the sounds and the feelings I get when I am immersed in trails of cedar trees and canoeing out on the water deeply grounds me and strengthens my bond to my lineage of the Swinomish tribe. I wanted the delicateness of these moments to meet the intense reality of the history of my people. I like to imagine my blood — all of my ancestors — running through our homelands freely and powerfully.”

The single comes with a beautiful, black-and-white visual treatment courtesy of Evan Benally Atwood. Watch it below.