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Nothing We Say EP

by Courtney Hartman

supported by
Britt Arnesen
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Britt Arnesen This songwriting is supreme, and the execution so soulful. Thank you for bringing this beautiful music to the world! Favorite track: Noah.
Patrick Chassé
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Patrick Chassé Hello Courtney,

At the first listening I wanted to hear more. I'm glad I did. Thanks for the peacefull songs. Favorite track: Nothing We Say.
April D Struthers
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April D Struthers Courtney's skills and personality shine through on this EP! Good stuff! Favorite track: Nothing We Say.
Phil Mann
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Phil Mann Although I live in the UK I've seen you play with Della Mae at Merlefest NC, Charleston SC and Manchester, England. Impressed by your flat picking guitar style with DM and now this solo project. Looking forward to receiving the rest of the album. Phil Mann Favorite track: When You See the Morning.
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    Album design by Loren Witcher

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1.
When You See the Morning Courtney Hartman, Taylor Ashton It's five o'clock in the morning I'm wide awake with nothing to do Jet lag has tricked my mind I'm still far behind in Spain with you Outside the streets are glowing orange In a haze of November frost a-coming Oh when you see the morning darling Know that I'm not far behind you Was it only yesterday That we sang those old songs in Barcelona You offered me a cigarette I said, I don't smoke, but sure I'll take one Your eyes glowed like a pair of moons So I kissed you and said until next time Oh when you see the morning darling Know that I'm not far behind you You'll be out about your day While I'm still waiting on the sun to break the morning I cannot see it now But just around the bend I know it's burning In another day or two It'll sway my body back into a rhythm Oh when you see the morning darling Know that I'm not far behind you Breaking like a wave of blue When you see the morning darling Know that I'm not far behind you
2.
Nothing We Say Courtney Hartman I try to travel round as light as I can I only carry my body for its sentimentality It was the first thing my mother gave to me God bless her soul I never let myself fall hard Too afraid to make the same mistakes I've already made I only stay so long in the same place Then I carry on I can love you today But don't ask for tomorrow Don't ask if tomorrow I can stay With the sun's arising I've got to be travelin' But we can make a night of it again someday And in the hour before goodbye When nothing we say seems to hold its own weight And the click of the clock like rattling chains Say it's time to go I can love you today But don't ask for tomorrow Don't ask if tomorrow I can stay With the sun's arising I've got to be travelin' But we can make a night of it again someday You and I like the northern geese Never at home and never at ease When we're on the ground So hold me here for another night I will say what I can but the touch of my hand Speaks more than the words that slip my mind Failing me again I can love you today But don't ask for tomorrow Don't ask if tomorrow I can stay With the sun's arising I've got to be travelin' But we can make a night of it again someday
3.
4.
Noah 03:46
Noah Courtney Hartman Sweet dreams little one Everythings's alright I cannot hold your head at my breast Rock you to sleep or kiss you goodnight Eight months old When they took you away Stripped me of all that I had Of every defense that I gave Noah, Noah My only son Noah, Noah What I have I done Small knit cap In an empty blue room Round in my head goes your chitter chat voice Your pit patter feet on the warm kitchen floor Oh they called me crazy Then they put you in his hands And now I'm the guest at your father's house One day in ten, how will you understand? Noah, Noah My only son Noah, Noah What I have I done
5.
Hide and Seek Courtney Hartman I know it's cold but don't complain You know what happens if daddy hears ya Just hold my hand, walk real close Sometimes it helps to wiggle your toes We'll give it a bit, he'll soon forget That he ever brought us into town with him We'll find enough change to catch the Q train If you find a dime you win this race Cuz daddy's lost his mind again He's layin there asleep Don't he look a little like a manatee So come on brother let's run and play You close your eyes I'll run away Through Atlantic station Playing hide and seek When we get home we'll snuggle up warm Underneath Momma's old curtain cover We'll lay right there, as long as we can Til daddy comes stumbling home again And if we get lucky we'll find some food Hiding in the cupboard or the living room Oh boy, if only it'd be A box of crackers or a can of cheese But daddy's lost his mind again He's layin there asleep Don't he look a little like a manatee So come on brother let's run and play You close your eyes I'll run away Through Atlantic station Playing hide and seek Wake up, we gotta climb through the window Cuz daddy's brought his rowdy friends home You know what happens, if we stay Come on now, we got to run away Cuz daddy's lost his mind again He's blowin at the seams Don't he sound a little like a manatee So come on brother let's run away You close your eyes I'll pretend it's play time Running to the station Playing hide and seek Oh, come on brother let's run and play You close your eyes, I'll run away Through Atlantic station Playing hide and seek
6.
Take Me Back Colorado Courtney Hartman Traffic is bickering The streets are full of shouting My furnace hums with the car horns The oak trees have faded Left the streets looking jaded Oh November why're you wearin such a scorn Everyone's hasty This city's growing angsty Waiting on thanksgiving day to come I am too Take me back Colorado I'm headed home I'll miss you in December Like I did in November When you kissed me goodbye gently Wild wild leaves Blew up and down the streets But you didn't know the wind when you held me Gray paints the sky Pours fog into the night The drizzle can't decide to stay or go It'll lift soon, I'm a leavin soon The sky is clear and cold there My lungs fill with sharp air I'll stay out til the stars fill my cup Take me back Colorado I'm headed home

credits

released September 30, 2016

Courtney Hartman: voice, guitars, banjo
Mark Schatz: bass
Michael John Mckee: drums
Taylor Ashton: harmony

Produced by: Courtney Hartman & Jacob Blumberg
Engineered & Mixed by: Jacob Blumberg
Recorded at: Pipe Dream Ranch, Del Norte, CO
& eTown Studios, Boulder, CO
Mixed at: Thump Recording, Brooklyn, NY
Mastered by: Kim Rosen at Knack Mastering
Photography by: Sasha Arutyunova
Design by: Loren Witcher

All tracks by Courtney Hartman, Fearless Hum Publishing (BMI)
except "When You See the Morning" written with Taylor Ashton (ISOCAN) & Cumberland Gap (traditional)




With just six songs, it’s astonishing how Courtney Hartman’s debut solo recording tells such a vivid story. Nothing We Say is flush with intimate ruminations on her life as a traveling musician and a deep curiosity about the world around her.

“This album is a collection of songs that I wrote and labored over in hotel rooms, late at night, early in the morning, on the road, or at home during a few days of rest and laundry,” says the revered roots musician. “They are outpourings of the last couple years that I spent touring the world with Della Mae. Observations of the people and places that have infiltrated my mind.”

The luminous EP, released on Sept 30, delivers on the promise always apparent in her work as a guitarist and songwriter for Della Mae, the Grammy-nominated string band.

A sense of home threads through these songs, as a tribute to Hartman’s Colorado heritage and how it continues to inspire her wherever she goes. Although she’s based in Brooklyn, her home state still looms large, as evident on the closing “Take Me Back Colorado”:

The sky is clear and cold there
My lungs fill with sharp air
I'll stay out till the stars fill my cup
Take me back Colorado
I'm headed home

In the dead of a Colorado winter – under clear, cold skies and, at night, an unending panorama of shimmering stars – Hartman recorded the album with co-producer Jacob Blumberg in a small cabin on a ranch in Del Norte. Bassist Mark Schatz and drummer Michael John McKee fleshed out the songs with graceful precision, giving them room to grow and explore, and Taylor Ashton added close harmonies on “When You See the Morning.”

Hartman casts a gimlet eye not only on her own life, but also that of others. Take “Noah,” a hymn-like lullaby that relays the heartbreaking story of a mother who lost custody of her young child. Meanwhile, the title track aches with the hard truth that sometimes connection is simply fleeting. “I can love you today, but don’t ask for tomorrow,” she warns on “Nothing We Say.” “Don't ask if tomorrow I can stay/ With the sun arising/ I've got to be travelin’/ But we can make a night of it again someday.”

Adding to her five original songs, Hartman puts a freewheeling spin on the folk standard “Cumberland Gap,” reimagining it with fresh and downright wild variations. An instrumental, it’s also a prime showcase for the flatpicking guitar prowess that has earned Hartman acclaim from the magazines Acoustic Guitar and Fretboard Journal and peers such as jazz virtuoso Julian Lage.

Holed up in that secluded cabin, where the temperature outside rarely climbed above the teens, Hartman and her crew conjured warmth and communion. We hear the shape of the room on these unvarnished recordings, as if you’re seated beside them. We hear the quietude of the landscape, the crackle of the wood-burning stove as Hartman fingerpicks the melody on “Take Me Back Colorado.” She wasn’t afraid to leave in the imperfections, knowing that they reflected the honesty at the heart of her lyrics. She was more interested in capturing what she calls “an urgency of solitude.”

“I’ll put an extroverted album out into the world one day. But this one isn’t quite that,” Hartman says. “I wanted the songs to sound whole with just my voice and guitar, and then slowly add what was wanted. What I didn’t want was for a listener to hear it and ask, Yes, but where is Courtney?”

There’s no mistaking where and what Hartman is on Nothing We Say: She’s open-hearted and in the spotlight. Right where she belongs.

– James Reed

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Courtney Hartman Eau Claire, Wisconsin

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