On New Year’s Eve this past year, Raleigh singer-songwriter Kate Rhudy released her single “Dance It Away,” a honeyed, folksy track with electro-pop underpinnings. Last week, she released the video for the single and tonight, Rhudy performs that song and others in a free livestream set on YouTube.
The performance replaces a show that would’ve taken place at Kings. In a gentle sign of our new times, you can tune in at 8 p.m. from your couch or porch. You can crack open a seltzer or a PBR or a PBR analog and Rhudy will integrate a way to “virtually tip” Kings bartenders. You can peruse some virtual merch. You can dance it away.
I was drawn to the single when it first came, out months ago, but these past few weeks has drawn me to it anew. Produced by Jack Hallenbeck (Maggie Rogers), “Dance It Away” highlights Rhudy’s confidently introspective songwriting. It’s a song that doesn’t promise answers but does offer a ribbon of light; a caring two-step through overwhelming unknowns.
Rhudy knows about unknowns. The video, which she released on her Instagram last week and which is also posted below, was partially filmed in Brewery Bhavana where Rhudy works. Since then, Brewery Bhavana has shut its doors, as has every restaurant across the state that is not serving takeout.
“This video was filmed at a very different time, at a restaurant I’ve worked in for almost three years,” Rhudy wrote in an Instagram post. “Thank you, Bhavana, for your generosity. We cleared out the dining room tables and I skated around. I set off the fire alarm. I have learned so much from working in the service industry, from its leaders and my peers.”
“Dance It Away” makes you want to sway or glide or drift, more than outright break into dance. The heart of the song, though, feels less about catharsis then it does figuring out how to move something with faith and vulnerability. Listening to it feels like working your way out of a dream and into a revelation.
“Dance It Away is a song written with love,” Rhudy ended her post by writing. “It’s about giving yourself a break, and asking someone to be with you to dance it off. I hope it makes you want to dance. Greeting the day still matters.”
You can donate to the Triangle Restaurant Worker’s Relief Fund here, and tune into the livestream at 8 p.m. here. Snake, Rhudy’s 7″, will digitally premiere later this spring.
Contact deputy arts and culture editor Sarah Edwards at sedwards@indyweek.com.
DEAR READERS, WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW MORE THAN EVER. Support independent local journalism by joining the INDY Press Club today. Your contributions will keep our fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle, coronavirus be damned.
