Acoustic Guitar
Acoustic Guitar
Courtney Hartman
Guitarist and singer-songwriter Courtney Hartman discusses her evolution from flashy flatpicker to introspective songwriter, the staying power of old-time music, her relationship with Bourgeois Guitars, and shares insights from teaching music.
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This episode is hosted, directed, and edited by Joey Lusterman and produced by Tanya Gonzalez. Executive producers are Lyzy Lusterman and Stephanie Campos Dal Broi.
The Acoustic Guitar Podcast is produced by the team at Acoustic Guitar magazine, including:
- Publisher: Lyzy Lusterman
- Editorial Director: Adam Perlmutter
- Managing Editor: Kevin Owens
- Creative Director: Joey Lusterman
- Digital Content Director: Stephanie Campos Dal Broi
- Marketing Services Manager: Tanya Gonzalez
The thing that keeps me going is like continuing to learn how to express the music that's kind of already being already swirling in our heads or were already happening, and then doing that with people is a whole different and beautiful thing.
Stephanie Campos:Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Podcast. I'm executive producer Stephanie Campos, and I'm pleased to be sharing this episode with you. Nick Grizzle and Jeffrey Pepper Rogers recently sat down with guitarist, singer and writer Courtney Hartman. They discuss Hartman's evolution from flashy flat picker to introspective songwriter, insights from teaching music, her relationship with bourgeois guitars, the staying power of old-time music and so much more. If you enjoy this episode, please consider joining the Acoustic Guitar Patreon community, where your contribution of $1 per month or more supports creating resources for guitarists like this show. You'll also get some extra special perks in return. Learn more at patreoncom slash acoustic guitar plus what's been inspiring your playing lately?
Courtney Hartman:that's a really good question. A couple things come to mind. We've been listening to, like you know, like old time music around the house and playing for my daughter. There's a different like like what can I do to make her smile? That kind of lightness. But um, learning from claw hammer, banjo players and fiddle players is always something I'd like to do, but have had more time at home to do a little more of that. And and then in the songwriting realm, writing just about the season of life and co-writing with people who are in, or have been in similar seasons.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:Now, when you talk about claw hammer, banjo and fiddle and old time music and things, are you talking about taking ideas from that over to guitar, because I know you play these other instruments as well? Are you doing both?
Courtney Hartman:yeah, I have not been playing those other instruments as much, but more taking them to guitar. Um, transcribing very loosely because I haven't. It's been years since I've either transcribed by writing down or but you know exactly. But but yeah, learning them on guitar. I feel like it pulls me out of some like guitar-y habits and just opens up new spaces for me.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:So is all this for you feeding into songwriting or doing instrumental work as well?
Courtney Hartman:Yes, and I think it it all feeds. Um, you know, it's kind of like it's always everything is feeding, feeding everything in some way. Um, I do find that when I'm in a songwriting zone, like songwriting for me is not um exercising my guitar muscle or or like exercising that part of my brain or that part of like what I love to do, and at a certain point maybe it will like I'll after the song is written. Maybe then there's like guitar, more integrated guitar stuff that feels challenging and beautiful and exciting. Otherwise it does feel like it's two separate parts of me and so sometimes when I'm in a songwriting zone, the guitar part of me might lapse a little bit in that space, or vice versa, if I'm focused on working on guitar things, then I might not be writing as much, and part of that is just the nature of having limited time. More and more so is like a child is in our life, and that takes time, takes a lot of time.
Nick Grizzle:Your songwriting, your songs on your albums, not bluegrassy stuff, you know, in the traditional picking kind of sense. Right, like you know, it's very different.
Courtney Hartman:Hmm, I mean, I haven't like played bluegrass in a long time, as far as you know. Uh, playing it out, it's definitely what I grew up on and I still love it and it's and it's a joyful thing. Um, but as far as my own writing, I just, I guess I I write what comes out, what comes to me, and and that's influenced by everything I hear, I think. I think we're all just kind of this amalgamation of what we've absorbed.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:You said not really playing bluegrass out so much at this point. But I'm wondering what are some of the things that you feel like the grounding in bluegrass and fiddle tunes and that music carry over into the music that you are playing now?
Courtney Hartman:Playing tunes and learning tunes and these melodies that are like simple and yet intricate, like the way they move through different shapes of a very few number of notes you know, different shapes of a very few number of notes, you know and there's like a rhythm in the melody and the way that phrases repeat and then there are like slight shifts that like make the tune what it is.
Courtney Hartman:And there's this huge volume of material that really is like, when it boils down to it, like it's been hugely informative in how I think about melody and how I write melody for songs. And then just the timelessness of the songs that come from that repertoire, again like simple and yet you dig in and you're like, oh, my goodness, and you know the intricacies are once you go a few levels deeper. So that to me, has completely formed who I am as a songwriter. Then the way that, like crooked fiddle tunes, which are just like tunes that don't have um square phrases so they might have an extra phrase of five or um, an extra phrase of six bars or something, um and it's just called crooked, is how you would, you know, call that. To me that also has informed, like um just allowing the, the, either the lyrics or the melody to just like take precedence over keeping things square and keeping things like normal, um, and I think that is so, I love, I love that.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:That's the kind of stuff that I get to them and to those songs. And one of the things that I was realizing is that you know, in terms of guitar, like there's a lot of very lush guitar going on in your songs but there's very little of like a conventional guitar solo kind of thing going on in there, of like a conventional guitar solo kind of thing going on in there. I'm just wondering, is that sort of a conscious choice to steer in that direction or is that just sort of what the material seems to want?
Courtney Hartman:Mm-hmm, I think a little bit of both, something that I got a little burnt out on playing in the bluegrass context and needing to always project. It was always a matter of just like, am I being heard? Because guitar is hard to capture in that way, especially in a band context, and so there was that question and just always needing to play basically as loud as you could right. That's the thing. As acoustic guitar players. But also for soloing, I had this question like why am I taking a solo here? Or what is this doing to the song, what is this doing to the listener's imagination as they're listening to the lyrics, and am I actually doing anything to carry them somewhere? And so that informed how I thought about improvising over those songs.
Courtney Hartman:But it also maybe there was a part of me that just was like I'm tired of just soloing, right, and so I think when I went to create my own music, I wasn't intentionally not doing that, it was just that there wasn't always, it didn't always feel like it was necessary and I didn't want to do it unless it was necessary. And yeah, as I'm creating now, like I miss that like visceral feeling of just like opening up musically and being able to carry a whole band with you know, you're kind of like the horse at the front of the carriage when you're take, when you're singing or when you're playing a solo, and that feeling is amazing. And so there's a, there's a. I can sense that in me is like, oh yeah, a part of me does love that and loves the freedom and just opening that comes in doing that kind of improvisation but you don't want to feel like, okay, verse chorus, verse chorus.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:Now I got to do a solo because that's what happens next yeah, that doesn't to me.
Courtney Hartman:That doesn't do anything for me if it, if it doesn't serve the, the song. And so in the, in the context of like playing acoustic guitar, solo, rhythm, and just feeling like your only real battle was like whether you were heard or not, that was, you know, me in my mid-20s, like that was the question. Early 20s was like I wanted to know. I wanted to know and be able to capture the sound of, like my thumb, the skin on my thumb, against the string, like the intimacy of sound. I wanted that. And then I also wanted to just like be big and wide and lush with sound. You know, in that context, which you can't necessarily do with a guitar either and you can't have sustain. So I think I was wanting both and I and that was where both of those sounds were coming from was just wanting to explore that in a way I hadn't been able to in terms of creating those, those kind of textures and and songs.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:I was wondering and I'm actually not sure about this whether tunings at all are part of that landscape for you and in songwriting somewhat.
Courtney Hartman:I don't think I lean on it as much as I could, or as much as some folks um do. I tend to find a tuning that I'm excited about and then I write a bunch in that tuning, and so I've done a little bit less of just like going to a more random place, although there's a song off of Glade right at my back and I couldn't. I recorded a number of different guitar parts and so then, after the recording was done and I needed to figure out how to play it, I ended up with this. Really weird when you just strum it it's very out and dissonant, but I wanted to be able to hit the bass notes on the low strings and also play the high part, so it worked backwards in that case of you know the song happening, and then, after the recording was done, figuring out a wacky tuning was what was necessary in order to recreate the recording of it. But yeah, it's, it is. It is a really beautiful way of opening up new things, I think.
Nick Grizzle:You're also a teacher. You taught at the Blue Ridge Guitar Camp recently, I saw, and a lot of other places, I'm sure. How has teaching been fulfilling for you as a guitarist?
Courtney Hartman:What I have found is that, let's see, I like teaching and it's inspiring. I don't always love. You know like it can get a little bit old to just teach like right hand technique, or to just teach like here's how to play this tune, and you do that over and over again, or you do that at camps, and that to me, feels like it becomes draining. When I can teach with the context of this group of people or this person. They're coming here and being totally vulnerable in trying something that is new to them or is maybe difficult to them, or in sharing a song that opens up a part of them. I think a shift for me happened when I saw people doing that and I got to just be there and helped guide them through that place of vulnerability or helped guide them into a place of like feeling brave or into a place of connecting with a stranger when you're improvising together. And then all of a sudden I watched them walk away and they're friends and then hopefully they walk back into their life, getting home, and they're able to be more courageous in their job or they're able to be more open with a partner.
Courtney Hartman:To me, when teaching stopped at just we're going to play guitar. I had a hard time connecting with it and being present as a teacher when I felt like, oh, oh no, this is a, this is a door which you know because you can. Students might go, they leave, they come back and they're basically the same level. They're not. Most of them aren't really going um, progressing in a way that can like make you feel satisfied as a teacher, but we, we don't see the progression that might happen in their lives as a whole, and so, if I can be a part of impacting their lives as a whole, whether that's in a lesson or a workshop or a camp, what are some things that you feel like you have learned for yourself about guitar or about songwriting by being in that position of trying to help other people do it?
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:Have you taken lessons away that you've helped you understand things about what you do yourself?
Courtney Hartman:This year I feel like every season I end up teaching a little bit differently, because I'm learning different things Recently, like talking about the power of listening and how often we play our instruments, and there's that initial like childlike curiosity about sound Right, childlike curiosity about sound right, which we all can point back to where we were. Just like this sound is amazing, like I'm doing, I'm making this motion and this sound is coming out and we're just totally captivated by the sound. And then we get a little bit more into, like the obsession over how to make the sound and I think sometimes we forget to actually listen to what's coming out of our instruments. I know that I do, um, and so really that's just a matter of like being present. And so we get, we get caught up with like, um, you know, how am I what? What are my hands doing? Am I moving into this position? Am I? I'm not going fast enough, I'm not.
Courtney Hartman:I wonder what they're thinking we, all of those adult, adult kind of things that we get caught up with and we're no longer just like listening and being present with like what the sound is today, in this moment. So that's something that's like. I mean, that's a life of learning for me, otherwise it's, um, I think I learn a lot about my own body through teaching and teaching, you know, as I'm slunched over right now, um, teaching about body awareness and especially anybody, like I've had difficulty with my hands in the past, um and kind of currently have to be extra mindful. But watching these people who are older and in a different season of life where they have an extra need to be aware of their body in order to continue playing guitar, that kind of helps me reprioritize that for myself.
Nick Grizzle:It reminds me of. You gave an interview to Acoustic Guitar Magazine in 2017, and you were talking about the shape of notes, and this, what you're talking about here with being mindful and really listening to the sounds coming out of your instrument makes me think of that and I wanted to see if you could expand on that idea where you were talking about the shape of notes. It was so. The full quote uh was uh, I didn't want to play guitar like a guitar player. Uh, russ Barenberg was one of the earliest guys where I remember very specifically being like I want to sound the way he sounds. It wasn't all about just the notes, it was about the shape of the notes.
Courtney Hartman:Okay, interesting, courtney, if I time machine myself back there in my mind, like the notes is like, rather than this kind of like 2D flat thing that just like kind of pummels forward, the there being like a roundness to the notes, but also, like you know, the shape of the notes, like how it's different as a, as a fiddle player, that can have this swelling note, um, that sustains some.
Courtney Hartman:What does that look like? If we try to create that note on guitar, to play a note that comes out of a trumpet, how would that feel if we played that on guitar or a piano, like I think I probably listen more to piano than to any other instrument. As far as just like in life and around the house, how does that look? And how does, yeah, that the shape of notes? In that way it could be the shape of the sound wave, like if you're watching pro tools or something, because that's fascinating too um, and, like you know, the, the big kind of full belliedness of a big bass note or um. But I think more than anything was just probably referring to emulating other instruments in that way plus.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:The thing that makes me think of is I mean, russ Barenberg is such a a singing kind of guitar player, much more vocal oriented player in a way, than, as opposed to the, you know the, the barreling, you know fast notes kind of thing. Um, and I and that's something that I hear in a lot of your playing as well, in addition to maybe other instruments more of a vocal quality yeah, that's great.
Courtney Hartman:That's what I want. Something I often teach is getting people to sing what they hear in their head, and then we practice translating that to guitar as fluidly as possible, kind of in small steps and when I'm playing. My best I think it's when that's happening unconsciously and and fluidly and I'm not relying on the guitar-y things that I've learned over the years, but really just like playing what's what's in my head and what's responding to the people around me.
Nick Grizzle:Yeah, I see there's a lot in jazz where a player will be singing along with their playing. Do you ever do that?
Courtney Hartman:I do that as a practice not in public, yeah and even just as a warm up to do that, practicing being led by your voice rather than leading with your instrument. If you can like, get really quiet and practice hearing what's in your head. Often, if we pick up the guitar, we go to play the same things Somehow I'm always playing in the key of E or just playing with open strings. In that way, if I practice just getting quiet in more of a meditative way, hearing what's in my head and then going to play, I think that's just like exercising that muscle of of um, constantly, um, not surrendering um. Maybe it's like uniting with what's in already in your body and what's in your mind, rather than always defaulting to what our hands are used to doing so.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:You were a guest artist in one of my songwriting workshops, and one of the things that you talked about then was carving out regular blocks of time just to write whatever comes to you during that time. I'm wondering what, to you, is the value of structuring things like that as opposed to just writing when something strikes you and inspiration strikes you.
Courtney Hartman:In the season I'm in now, which is full of parenting, a little munchkin, if I didn't carve out space, it wouldn't happen. I don't think. Well, I think carving out space also just reminds me that, like, yep, this is a part of who I am and what I love, and then maybe inspiration will come that afternoon right. In an ideal world, I would have space in the morning to do some writing, and then that muscle is kind of like it's warmed up, and so then, if something comes later in the day or in a conversation, I'm more prone to recognize it and either jot it down or capture it for later, or just like file it away and tomorrow we'll get there, like tomorrow we'll return to that place.
Courtney Hartman:Um, I go through, you know, like I don't write every, I don't write every day all the time. I go through seasons where that's important, um, to write every day, and and so there's that, and then, and then something else takes prominence for a little while, whether that's like playing every morning or something else. But yeah, there's something to me about the consistency that just opens you up, or opens me up, to say yes to whatever is there.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:Would you say the same thing is valuable for just playing. I mean that it's a sort of carve out structure time, like okay, this is my guitar time right now.
Courtney Hartman:That sounds awesome. That sounds so great. For the last like month and a half, I would go out to the garden every morning before temple daughter was awake usually or sometimes, you know, if my husband was watching her for a minute and even 10 minutes of just standing and playing and being in the presence of like the sounds of trees and birds in the morning, it's so great. That's that like feels like it enlivens my day and then I've touched my guitar that day. This might always exist for me, but it's like if I go through days where I haven't played like some things off, my hands feel weird and I'm happier if I just get to play a little bit every day, but it's not like an hour or two hours or four. It's like maybe I can play for 10 minutes and that feels like a win. If I get more, more than that, that's also great, but right now that's where it's at.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:I know for me personally with parenthood came this whole new understanding of experience, of just kind of joyful outbreaks of music in the house, you know beyond, just like, okay, I'm going to try to write a song or I'm going to try to play right now.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:Outbreaks of music in the house, you know, mm-hmm, yeah, beyond. Just like, okay, I'm going to try to write a song or I'm going to try to play right now, but just sort of like the way kids just have music flying out of them all the time. Are you experiencing that in your home?
Courtney Hartman:Yes, and Temple has just started like dancing. She loves to like dance and groove. I don't know where these dance moves come from, but she's got like a little clogging move that she gets excited about and so that makes you want to like sing a song or play the banjo or whatever it is, and I think that'll. I hope that just continues to become more of like I don't know. I think we're sillier and that's awesome, but also just making music happen and turning it on, because you can literally see it change a mood and sometimes that's so necessary.
Nick Grizzle:What is something that maybe comes up pretty regularly with your students. Are there things that they come to you with, or questions, or maybe things that you see in general, that you find yourself wanting to point out to them or suggest to students just time and time again, time and time again.
Courtney Hartman:Well, some people were working on songwriting, so that's specific.
Courtney Hartman:Some people were working on songwriting and guitar playing, or singing and guitar playing.
Courtney Hartman:I think, as far as guitar playing goes, often we end up talking about one good use of our bodies, allowing, you know, using our weight and not our muscles, using rather the weight of our muscles so that we're not bringing in extra tension.
Courtney Hartman:That's really important for me to. That's an important thing that I want to instill in people and help walk them through. And the other thing, I think, is really just helping people to acknowledge and begin to express the music that's inside of them. Like, that sounds so simple and even corny, but that's what it's about, I think. In the end, if people can feel like they have the tools to do that, in a way where they're not just reading a tablature solo and trying over, you know, for a year to like precisely play that one thing, to me that doesn't feel as inspiring it might be to some people, so that's great. But the thing that keeps me going is like continuing to learn how to express the music that's kind of already swirling in our heads or we're already happening, and then doing that with people is a whole different and beautiful thing.
Nick Grizzle:Well, how about for yourself? What's the best piece of guitar advice you've ever received?
Courtney Hartman:There's a couple. I have this swirl of things that come to mind. Early on, a guitarist named Uwe Kruger helped me un-anchor my wrist and that totally changed my playing. I'm showing you in the video, but if I just describe it, if your wrist is anchored on the bridge, you can see in your forearm all the muscles engage and so lifting that to where your hand was in this more of a resting position, like if you were swinging your arms by your side, there's all these beautiful angles that happen then a really straight angle from your shoulder down to your elbow, a nice straight line from your elbow to your wrist, and so un-kinking my wrist in that way was a big thing as like a you know, 12 or 13 year old. So that was a big piece, I think, in my mind early on.
Courtney Hartman:Also like watching guitarists play. There's a in my mind Brian Sutton just playing at Rocky Grass, which was a big festival that I loved a lot, or influential festival, I mean the whole body nature of playing and being in rhythm. And Julian Lodge, similar thing. Like we don't need it's not just our arms but our whole bodies, and so what are your feet doing? How are your ribs opening, and that kind of attentiveness and also like engagement and it just like it feels better when you're allowing your body and your core to move and groove and be a part of it. To move and groove and be a part of it and I think it's also you produce a better sound and potentially, can engage in a different way with an audience.
Courtney Hartman:I got to record with Bill Frizzell for the album I did called Ready Reckoner and I think, sitting across from him and watching him, just the care with which he gave to every single note, like there was no rushing through anything, obviously because it's Bill Frizzell, but just so much care and presence with every note and it made me feel held and I think it yeah, it was. It definitely influenced me as I, as I continue to grow and learn and life changes and shifts happen, um, I'm excited to continue to learn and and to grow and create, in whatever season it is, and that and it'll look different. It might not always be in the form of albums, it might not always be in the form of playing shows for seasons, but it's still something I care about a lot.
Nick Grizzle:So, changing gears a bit, I wanted to ask you about your actual instruments, your guitars. I see you're a big fan of the bourgeois and the smart archtop that you have Drew you to those originally, and what keeps you coming back to those, because you seem very passionate about those? I know people who play guitar tend to love their instruments right, there's a reason they have them but I feel like you're even more passionate about these particular ones for some reason that's great.
Courtney Hartman:Um, let's see so with Dana Bourgeois I I used to, like my dad so graciously would take me to NAMM, which is like the big convention in um, california I don't know. He got had a friend who was able to get tickets and I loved it. You know it's like it is overstimulation central, but I just loved getting to go play all the instruments and that. And IBMA, like the convention area, I just like loved getting to go play. So Dana would have a booth at both of those and was so kind and I didn't have like a real, I had a, I had a Taylor. Those are real guitars. Um, it was one with a lot of inlay which I was always like a little embarrassed about.
Courtney Hartman:My dad liked buying instruments on eBay but uh, I knew Brian Sutton played a bourgeois for a while and mostly I just like liked the instruments and callings. You know I like to go into all the booths, that's what I like doing. And then Dana helped me out when I was in need of an instrument. My guitar got crushed and he just loaned me one and since that time time we've had more of a kind of a working relationship where I've played things that he was working on and wanted to try out, and he's built things for me that, like I had a pilgrimage guitar that he built. That's one of my favorite instruments tiny little, he calls it the piccolo, and I just said I was going to walk the Camino and that's like a that was 500 miles and I wanted to take a guitar. So he built the most lightweight thing and durable thing he could and it's so special and I've written so much music on it and recorded so much with it. It's just like it's a totally special instrument to me anyhow. So that's bourgeois.
Courtney Hartman:And then Lawrence Smart he built the archtop that I play, which I love, and he's this a really kind, wonderful person in Idaho, I guess you, I really value the artistry of these builders and the fact that like it's a living relationship, like there's something so magical about old instruments and if I have the money someday maybe I'll have an old instrument that I love. But that's just like not been my zone, but I have had these really great relationships with current builders and I think that's just something I value a lot. So, yeah, played Lawrence's. We were at a camp together in Wyoming and then I didn't ever give it back to him. So I think I want to buy this and have this as my own.
Courtney Hartman:And then, more recently, the folks over at Pre-War, matt and Wes. I have a guitar modeled after a J45 that they built and I got that from them about a year ago. After J45 that they built and I got that from them about a year ago. Totally love it. It's been so fun to play and again like just getting to know them and they're just like two of the kindest people ever and they are so passionate and so good at what they do. It's yeah, that's a yeah, that's a real gift.
Nick Grizzle:What would be your, like you know, dream vintage guitar.
Courtney Hartman:Oh, I mean, I think like an old, like Martin Dreadnought, partly because it's just ingrained in me that that's the guitar right, and not all of them are really special, but the ones that are there, there's nothing like it so the arch top, though, is it's not not your typical bluegrass guitar, uh, so what?
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:what is the what is the arch top specifically do for you, or why are you drawn to that?
Courtney Hartman:I think initially I liked it because it wasn't a bluegrass guitar it felt good to sing with, and most of the time now I play it through an amp, which is great. I love that. It responds really well to being tuned down and usually I'll have it down a half step or a whole step and that for me provides such a nice thing to sing over, especially if I'm playing solo, or a lot of times I'll play with just duo, with a drummer, and so I can fill up some of that bottom space with that guitar in a way that I can't with an acoustic or a dreadnought. I have it handy.
Nick Grizzle:I don't have it plugged in, but I can certainly play a second.
Courtney Hartman:It also has this nice a bit of a more rounded high end that I like and right now it's tuned down a half step so that gives a sense of like it can be really honky, which I don't utilize all that often or always love, but there's a richness, I think.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:Just to circle back, one other question about guitars, the little guitar that you took traveling. Is that a high-tuned guitar or is it a standard pitch?
Courtney Hartman:That one I often keep tuned down a little bit as well, um, sometimes a half step, or with um this artist, s Carey, that I've, I play with him pretty often there's a couple songs where it's nice to have that down a whole step, um, and it gets this real like kind of thummy, just like deep, rich, kind of as if you were playing a left hand muted piano line of like that kind of sound. Yeah, so that's possible. And then that guitar went out on tour with Nickel Creek for a minute in an emergency situation. That guitar went out on tour with Nickel Creek for a minute in an emergency situation where they needed an instrument and Sarah had it, I think with Nashville Tuning. So that was a high strung up high. So, yes, both I guess.
Nick Grizzle:It must be pretty lightweight.
Courtney Hartman:if you can bring it on a 500-mile walk, then it was lightweight until I put a pickup in it, but it still is very lightweight. I mean, they did an incredible job. Yeah, I'm so grateful for that instrument.
Nick Grizzle:Is that something they make usually, or was that something you said? Here's what's in my head. Can you make this?
Courtney Hartman:yeah, exactly, and I didn't even. I called dana, just being like, okay, here's a stupid idea. I think I'm gonna do this walk and I want to take a guitar. I asked him, thinking he might recommend, like you know, um, the taylor, little tiny one or which I can't remember what that's called pretty great instrument for the size and price point. But he was just like, well, could I build you something? And so, of course, yeah, yeah, uh, yeah, duh. And then that what I didn't necessarily expect was how much I've used it in the studio, just because of how unique its sound is.
Nick Grizzle:Have you been recording in the studio any new materials lately?
Courtney Hartman:Yeah, I have. I have just finished two weeks of tracking for a new record.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:So what kind of direction is your latest music going in?
Courtney Hartman:I don't even totally know the answer to that. I think there's an acoustic element to this album. I think that just came from me missing that a bit. And this one, whereas Glade was about, I mean, I recorded most of that alone, had some friends send parts in, but a lot of it was just alone at the computer for months and I missed playing music with people so much, and so that was important for me, for this one was to be in relationship with people musically and also just like energy-wise, so that's a big part of it.
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers:Are you talking about a rhythm section? Drums, bass, whatnot?
Courtney Hartman:Yeah, and there'll be some other more acoustic elements. But really, just like all of these people are really good at what they do and we get in a room together and that's a moment that we rarely get to have. Getting to record with people is like such a special thing and such a privilege. And then recording with an engineer who's really good at what they do, you know, it's just like. That's an amazing experience that sometimes I take for granted.
Stephanie Campos:The Acoustic Guitar Podcast is produced by the team at Acoustic Guitar Magazine. This show is directed and edited by Joey Lesterman. Tanya Gonzalez is our producer. Executive producers are Lizzie Lesterman. Tanya gonzalez is our producer. Executive producers are lizzie lesterman and me, stephanie campos. Our theme music was composed by adam perlmutter and performed for this episode by jeffrey pepper rogers. If you'd like to support the podcast, we are on patreon at patreoncom slash acoustic guitar plus. As a supporter, you'll have access to bonus episodes, guitar lessons, song transcriptions and more, and if you, as a supporter, you'll have access to bonus episodes, guitar lessons, song transcriptions and more, and if you're already a patron. Thank you so much for your support.
