Philadelphia singer/songwriter Katie Bennett spent the better part of the past decade recording and performing as Free Cake For Every Creature, disbanding the project in 2019, and spending the ensuing years reconnecting with her own identity as an artist. She’s now re-emerged as Katie Bejsiuk (her original surname—her father, a first-generation American of Ukrainian descent, changed it before her birth), announcing her debut album under her reclaimed name, The Woman on the Moon (June 24, Double Double Whammy), and sharing her first new material since the Free Cake days: April’s “Onion Grass” and today’s (May 12) “Feels Right.”
Reedy acoustic guitar, placid pedal steel and piano accompany Bejsiuk as she relives a series of intimate moments with someone who has “a fleck of purple in [their] eyes,” giving us just enough detail to understand the relationship at the song’s center. Bejsiuk pairs her high, delicate vocals with those of her former Free Cake collaborator Francis Lyons in the choruses, choosing passion over reason: “Doesn’t make sense / But it feels right,” they repeat, their voices fitting together like two perfectly compatible partners. Eventually, Bejsiuk gives the song over to its piano and lap steel, which wander off hand in hand.
“In ‘Feels Right’ I lean into the inexpressibility of my instincts and feelings rather than trying to name, rationalize or trap them,” Bejsiuk explains in a statement. “I’m excited about the way the music reflects this meandering, amorphous venture, and I especially had fun plunking on a friend’s piano with the windows open.”
Bejsiuk wrote her new album while living in upstate New York between 2019 and 2021, and recorded it herself on her laptop between April and August 2021. All the while, she was dealing with more than her fair share of personal upheaval: “she separated from her husband for a period, was estranged from her sister, quit her job and moved twice,” a press release explains. The process of creating The Woman on The Moon “helped me move through huge life changes, and helped me access who I am,” Bejsiuk says. Contributors to the album included her Free Cake collaborators Lyons, Heeyoon Won, Colin Manjoney, Meghan Center and Peter Gill (Friendship), as well as newcomers Will Henriksen, Amy Oelsner (Amy O), Jason Calhoun and Jon Samuels.
Listen to “Feels Right” below, and revisit Free Cake’s 2016 Daytrotter session further down. The Woman on the Moon is now available for preorder.
