Songwriter Courtney Hartman brings a concert and creative workshop to Art House 808

Courtney Hartman. // photo courtesy the artist

Singer-songwriter Courtney Hartman is Wisconsin-based, but Colorado-born, and she’s coming to Kansas City this weekend for a Friday, April 11 show at Art House 808—along with a workshop, “Creative Practice of Songwriting,” the following morning, Saturday, April 12.

The singer, writer, and producer has written and recorded with artists throughout the folk community, having recently done work on the soundtrack for Green and Gold, along with producing Eva Rose King’s After Tale album, and playing guitar on Holly Lovell’s Hello Chelsea.

Additionally, thanks to more than 500 Kickstarter backers, Hartman is close to finishing a new album, With You, a collection of songs “co-written with mothers in the music industry, about tenderness and caregiving.” We spoke with Hartman from her home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, about her journey there and what teaching music brings to her own songwriting.

Given that Hartman’s last album, Glade, was written where the songwriter grew up in Colorado, we started by asking just how the upcoming With You differs, given the fact that she moved to Eau Claire just five years ago.

“Like any creative work–at least that I make, it’s very reflective of the life season I was in,” Hartman says. “Glade was very much about this question of home and home being a place that you go to or a person that you find home is, and then, having relocated here, putting roots here With You, which is very much about the journey for me of entering motherhood.”

Hartman says that was not at all something she set about to do or thought she would ever do, but explains it came about in “this really organic and life-giving way,” a statement which easily could be talking about either being a mother or the subject matter of the album. Intrigued by that, we asked Hartman what putting down roots offered her after an adulthood spent traveling.

“Since I was like a teenager, really, I hadn’t been in one place long enough to really feel like I could be a part of a community,” Hartman reflects. “Also, the give and receive that is being a part of community. The music community is so strong and dispersed throughout the country that you see people everywhere but the idea of living locally, that’s been a big part of the last couple of years.”

The way that influenced this particular batch of music that is With You‘s core was made with people there in Eau Claire, and while they were people who musical brothers and sisters to Hartman and her husband, they were also the people who showed up and brought meals to the couple after their daughter was born.

“They’re the people we have picnics with and share resources with, so that it feels very aligned,” marvels Hartman. She goes on to say that the kind of community they found in Eau Claire is a simple one, with a beautiful art scene, but not so busy that they feel pulled every which way.

“At least for our lives, it feels more like I’m able to just kind of focus inward or give attention to home,” Hartman explains. “But there’s a really great songwriter scene here right now, which is awesome, and it’s small and connected, and there are a couple of fantastic music studios.”

Having those places and the hubs to create, that’s an incredible gift, Hartman says.

She also has her own gifts, in that the songwriting workshop she’s teaching on Saturday will be free for songwriters at any level. Hartman says that teaching has always been something she’s done alongside writing and performing.

“That’s one of my favorite things, to teach,” enthuses Hartman. “The idea to do something in Kansas City after the show comes from this desire to not just skim, where you’re just like, ‘No, I’m here one night,’ and you don’t actually get to root into any communities. It just feels like a way of spinning a little bit longer in a place or in a community and actually creating some depth there.”

Hartman admits this is a new way of touring and hasn’t done much of it, but the idea of spending three days in a city and getting to know the people who live there and make music also feels more humane to her and her family.

“As a parent, my time can no longer just be exploited,” Hartman says. “I can’t just be out on the road all the time. There is this sense of, if you can’t be exploited, maybe you’re expendable, I think, in the music industry.”

People get run into the ground pretty often, observes Hartman, but she thinks that it’s possible to do things in a way which honors one’s family, body, and work. She’s still figuring that out, she says, but absolutely wants to have time for her daughter, wants the health of her family to be the priority, and to be able to work alongside that.

Of course, part of that work is making new music, and the music from With You is very new, so there’s a bit of trepidation, but Hartman is confident in the mutual trust between the audience and herself. The folks coming her to see are trusting her to hold space for the hour and a half she’s on stage, and she’s trusting them to hold the work and herself in a new space.

“Not that these audiences are guinea pigs in any way, but they’re definitely hearing me play these things pretty fresh,” admits Hartman. “The songs have existed now for a couple years, but I haven’t been playing them live for people, so that feels totally different and exciting.”

Hartman says almost every song on the new record was co-written with other mothers. There were many voices throughout the whole project.

“I wanted it to be this weaving of stories and of voices and to just have a real strength of mothers’ voices at the same time,” the musician continues. “It’s really grounded by the musical community that I have here in Eau Claire. To me, it’s not about me. It’s almost not my record. It’s very much a community effort.”

We finish up our conversation with Courtney Hartman by asking if, now that she’s been in Eau Claire for a little over four years and has put down some roots, traveling is easier now that she has a home to which she can return instead of a house.

“It would be yes and no,” Hartman posits. “You travel and there’s a yearning for home and for attending to the plants at home or the sourdough starter or the things that you have going, and the people. But also it feels–I think I appreciate even just going to Nashville for like 24 hours. There’s a new appreciation for when I do get to go out and be with the greater community of musicians or audiences.”

Courtney Hartman performs at Art House 808 on Friday, April 11. Tickets for that event can be found here. Her Creative Practice of Songwriting workshop in on Saturday, April 12, also at Art House 808. That event is free and registration can be found here.