Black Belt Eagle Scout – the project of Swinomish, WA-based multi-instrumentalist Katherine Paul – has returned with a new single, ‘Don’t Give Up’. It marks her first new music since 2019’s At the Party With My Brown Friends. Check it out below.
Paul started writing ‘Don’t Give Up’ before the pandemic in 2020 at a songwriting residency in Coast Salish territory and completed it in November 2021 while attending the same residency. “‘Don’t Give Up’ is a song about mental health awareness and the importance that my connection to the land plays within my own mental health journey,” Paul explained. “Spending time with the land and on the water are ways that strengthen my connection to my ancestors and to my culture. It helps heal my spirit and is the form of self-care that helps me the most.
“The lyrics ‘I don’t give up’ mean staying alive,” she continued. “I wrote this song for me but also for my community and anyone who deals with challenging mental health issues to remind us just how much of a role our connection to the environment plays within our healing process. At the end of the song when I sing ‘the land, the water, the sky,’ I wanted to sing it like my late grandfather Alexander Paul Sr. sang in our family’s big drum group – from the heart.”
Paul recently contributed to Sleater-Kinney’s upcoming tribute record Dig Me In: A Dig Me Out Covers Album, covering ‘It’s Enough’.
