SPILL NEW MUSIC: CHARLOTTE CORNFIELD PRESENTS NEW SINGLE + VIDEO “CUT AND DRY” | LP ‘COULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING’ OUT MAY 12 VIA NEXT DOOR RECORDS

CHARLOTTE CORNFIELD PRESENTS NEW SINGLE + VIDEO “CUT AND DRY”

LP COULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING OUT MAY 12 VIA NEXT DOOR RECORDS

Charlotte Cornfield is “a songwriter like few others, so able to deftly create in her songs an emotional resonance that when plugged in, hits us all right where we can share in her memories” (SPIN). Today, Cornfield presents “Cut and Dry”, the new single/video from her forthcoming album, Could Have Done Anything, out May 12 on Next Door Records. Could Have Done Anything is at once elaborate and unrehearsed; there’s a sense that it’s coming together — and coming alive — at the very moment it’s being made. “The hours flew by,” Cornfield says. “We lived inside of the songs there, for a few days.” You can hear it on a tune like “Cut and Dry”, where a radiant, easygoing groove forms the landscape of a song about seeing people as a whole, together with their mistakes.

Of “Cut and Dry” and its heartwarming video, Cornfield states: “When I wrote this song I was thinking about the idea of leaving things behind as a part of moving on – those painful past experiences that cause a pang of embarrassment and regret, the people who were at one point a central part of my life with whom I’ve fallen out of orbit – and how we can’t really sever ties with our past selves no matter how hard we try.

“When I sent this track to my brother Joe it really resonated with him, and he told me that he was sitting on a bunch of old family camcorder footage that he’d been meaning to check out. When he unearthed it there was this treasure trove of childhood music moments, from a kindergarten christmas concert to a ragtime piano competition to basement rockouts from that awkward preteen stage. I was struck by the images of my childhood self and how much of the present-day me I see in her, especially in the joy and passion and drive around music.

“We brought the camcorder out to the rehearsal space and then to the most recent show that I played, at 8 months pregnant, and the whole thing feels like a full circle moment.”

More About Could Have Done Anything

Could Have Done Anything, the follow-up to Cornfield’s break-out hit Highs in the Minuses, is a testament to this uncommon life and all its possibilities, an acknowledgment that the best musicians can turn fleeting moments into timeless songs. Throughout, Cornfield tried to channel the energy of her favorite classic records, from Tapestry to Blood On The Tracks to Car Wheels On A Gravel Road — albums where the listener is simply carried by the songs and the playing.

Whereas Cornfield’s preceding albums were made in familiar settings, with troupes of friends, this time she reached into the unknown, contacting producer Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman). The two convened in Upstate New York, first at the stained-glass-tinted Dreamland Recording Studios, then at the nearby Isokon Studio, run by engineer D. James Goodwin (Kevin Morby, Whitney) and assistant engineer Gillian Pelkonen. Four people, one album, six days; Kaufman and Cornfield (who went to school for jazz drums) played every instrument themselves, from ringing guitars to cozy piano, Hammond B3, pedal steel and synthesizers. That was the spirit of this record: connection, possibility, acceptance. “Don’t be afraid to take a left,” Kaufman would say.

After six days of recording, Cornfield went back to Canada, with a new album to mix and master. Another day-long drive; another homecoming; and one more thing, too, which would arise a little over nine months later: the singer’s first baby’s due April 2023. Anything can happen. Every year’s a kind of coming-of-age, and over these nine magnetic tracks, Cornfield begins yet another chapter.

Charlotte Cornfield
Could Have Done Anything
(Next Door Records)
Release Date: May 12, 2023

Pre-Order Could Have Done Anything HERE

Tour Dates

Thu. July 6 – Sun. July 9 – Winnipeg, MB @ Winnipeg Folk Fest
Fri. July 21 – Sun. July 23 – Nelsonville, OH @ Nelsonville Music Festival
Thu. Aug. 31 – Sun. Sept. 9 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival
Thu. Sept. 28 – Montreal, QC @ Rialto Rooftop – Pop Montreal

Artist Links

Photo Credit: Brittany Carmichael 

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