Courtney Hartman - With You (2025) Hi-Res

There are any number of happenings that could have derailed the completion of Courtney Hartman’s latest album, With You. The Wisconsin-by-way-of-Colorado singer-songwriter and her husband experienced home renovation woes, crises both medical and financial (which required money saved for recording sessions to be spent on life’s essentials) and, biggest of all, a pregnancy. As it turns out, even though Hartman initially resisted centering her new album around her motherhood, a writing retreat doubled as a sort of reset, encouraging her to write what she knew, even if it involved “knowing” things for the very first time. The result is a gently rendered trip through the most turbulent – and rewarding – time of Hartman’s life.

I came to know Courtney Hartman’s music during her time in Colorado through her gorgeous guitar playing, and while that mastery hasn’t changed, With You, appropriate to its title, is a very collaborative affair. The album’s first track, “Softening” (which bends around to the end of the record with “Softening Again”), begins with a layer of synths, improvised in studio by Ben Lester and Sean Carey, as Hartman sings the words she wrote during early labor – “Here we are at the cusp of meeting.” While most of the songs on the songs on With You focus on those first moments and impressions of motherhood, “Growing” (written with Sarah Siskind) flashes back to that writing retreat and Hartman’s full realization of all that was about to come, along with questions that couldn’t yet be answered – “Will you be tender watching the world with wide-open eyes/Will you be like the winter quiet and bright.”

Along with working with familiar Eau Claire-area musicians, Hartman wrote and sang with other women who’d found ways to balance musician and motherhood. Tift Meriitt contributes harmony vocals to “Honey, Honey,” one of those songs that seeks that equilibrium – “You arrived, now I sing, a broken harmony/How slow, how fast do these days go by” (Hartman’s husband, John DeHaven, also contributes a lovely, subtle trumpet solo). “Can You See” is a gorgeous three-person piece (featuring Emily Frantz and Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse) written to express Hartman’s love, through all of life’s messiness, for DeHaven – “I know I’m impatient with your heart/But I’m softening, learning how to let my eyes speak for me/More quietly.” And “Companion” offers gratitude toward all of those people (in this case, Hartman’s doula) whose brief impact on our lives doesn’t come close to matching their importance – “Now I see the door swing open/And I have stepped to the other side…You turn around/Let go of my hand and say/’It will be alright.’” As Hartman found out through the process of, well, everything that’s happened to her little family over the past few years, the people who know you best will step in when all that you’ve foolishly thought you had planned falls completely apart.

Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Inside Outside” – Written with Ana Egge and featuring harmonies from Michaela Anne and pedal steel from Ben Lester, the song has Hartman looking forward to getting to know her young daughter as she becomes her own person – “I wanna know it all/Just so you know/Anything you wanna show me.

With You was produced by Courtney Hartman and Brian Joseph, engineered and mixed by Joseph and mastered by Andy Whilden. All songs written by Hartman, with co-writes going to Saran Siskind, Tift Merritt, Kristin Andreassen, Ana Egge, Emily Frantz and Dawn Landes. Musicians on the album include Hartman (voice, guitars), Ben Lester (synth, pedal steel, piano, Wurlitzer), Sean Carey (synth, voice, drums, percussion, piano, harmony vocals, synth bass), Zoe Guigueno (upright bass, electric bass), Tift Merritt (harmony vocals), John DeHaven (trumpet), Russell Durham (violin, string arrangements), Kaitlin Raitz (cello), The Nunnery (harmony vocals), Shane Leonard (drums, percussion), Brian Joseph (piano), Jeremy Boettcher (electric bass), Sarah Krueger (harmony vocals), Liz Eldridge (harmony vocals), Phil Cook (piano), Ruthy Ungar (harmony vocals), Michaela Anne (harmony vocals), Emily Frantz (fiddle, harmony vocals), Andrew Marlin (guitar, harmony vocals), Phoebe Hunt (harmony vocals) and Rachel Sermanni (harmony vocals).