featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
May 14, 2023
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Sometimes I worry that if I don't quote myself no one else will. On the event of the release of her 2021 Highs in the Minuses, we praised Charlotte Cornfield thusly: Charlotte Cornfield's conversational tone belies the depth of feeling beneath her folk-rock, just as her openness and honesty are benchmarks of a confident writer. Liberated from any trappings or pretense, what's left on Highs is pure heart.
The Canadian Cornfield has just shared her fifth heartfelt gesture, Could Have Done Anything via Polyvinyl/Double Double Whammy. At just under thirty minutes, her nine-song collection is a practice in economy of arrangement and of communication. Like fellow songwriter Anna Tivel, Charlotte Cornfield doesn't tell stories or lead listeners on a journey. She picks us up and inserts us into the folds of a moment, inviting the listener to eavesdrop and to join her in an inventory of things and feelings.
On "Magnetic Fields", we accompany Cornfield to an intimate Montreal concert by the band of the same name: They played with confidence and resolve / And I wasn't nervous at all. A strummed acoustic is complemented by subtle waves of electric guitar, never intrusive or especially insistent. All sounds on Could Have Done Anything are created by Charlotte Cornfield or her producer, Josh Kaufman, all with this economy in mind even in their fullest moments. There's an almost funky spirit to "Nowhere", a shade of jazz to the song that dwells so deeply in the drama of everyday objects. Facing the prospect of an evening with nowhere to go, nothing to do and somebody in my bed, the singer considers her next move: Should I turn on the lamp, should I cover it with a shirt / Should I put on a record, maybe Big Star's Third / Or some ESG. It's an impressively deep reference to the rather obscure but influential Bronx funk/punk outfit, but it's spot-on in terms of the songwriter's bird's-eye for detail.
While there's a cool remove in her vocal, Charlotte Cornfield communicates contentment and even a degree of confidence on her new record. Like fellow Canadian Tamara Lindeman of Weather Station, her delivery is sober, even as she demonstrates a capacity for an airy higher register. The melodic "In From the Rain" boasts just a touch of twang in its fuller arrangement. Cornfield's vocal ranges from conversational to unexpectedly flexible: You are a mess / But I don't question it anymore. She threads her voice throughout the steadiness of the piano arrangement on "Gentle Like the Drugs", a tune she describes as letting grief and anxiety go and feeling light and buzzed and in love and joyful. The joy never exudes in bright colors or easy chords, but might be discernable like a warm breeze to a listener more familiar with where Cornfield has been on her previous albums.
Charlotte Cornfield sings: For the first time I really don't feel alone / Or anything sad / Or anything profound. Songs like "You and Me" and "Cut and Dry" are looser and even more melodic, even as the singer addresses the abiding legacy of long-ago moments. Both tunes deliver crunchier guitars and more insistent drums, exploring the pop aspects of her writing in a manner that might recall Aimee Mann. Could Have Done Anything deserves a place alongside other contemporary folk-indie pop songwriters like the women of boygenius. Cornfield's emotional inventory identifies the possible meaning in the everyday, and recognizes the repercussion that these quotidian moments may have. Most encouraging, on her new project she also accepts the possibility of transcendence: I'm grateful that I'm / Calmer than I was / Smarter than I was / Stronger than I was / Older than I was... Like we wrote, what's left is pure heart.
- Son Volt, "Sometimes You've Got To Stop Chasing Rainbows" Day of the Doug (Transmit Sound, Jun 16) D
- Margo Price, "Fight To Make It (ft Adia Victoria, Mavis Staples)" single (Loma Vista, 23) D
^ Charlotte Cornfield, "Gentle Like the Drugs" Could Have Done Anything (Double Double Whammy, 23)
- Bonny Doon, "On My Mind" Let There Be Music (Anti, Jun 16)
- Sam Blasucci, "Every Night On the Farm" Off My Stars (Innovative Leisure, Jun 2)
- Mikaela Davis, "Promise" And Southern Star (Kill Rock Stars, Aug 4)
- David Wax Museum, "Your Heart's a Pinata" You Must Change Your Life (Nine Mile, 23)
- Parker Millsap, "Half a World Away" Wilderness Within You (Okrahoma, 23)
- Jeffrey Silverstein, "Sunny Jean" Western Sky Music (Arrowhawk, 23)
- Jobi Riccio, "Whiplash" Whiplash (Yep Roc, Sep 8)
- RF Shannon, "Abalone" Red Swan in Palmetto (Keeled Scales, May 26)
- Lillie Mae, "Razor Love" single (sllc, 23) D
- Jamie Lin Wilson, "South Texas Girl" single (JLW, 23) D
- Jason Eady, "Way Down in Mississippi" Mississippi (Old Guitar, Aug 11) D
- Brennen Leigh, "Carole With an E" Ain't Through Honky Tonkin' Yet (Signature Sounds, Jun 16)
- Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, "Alcohallelujah" Sticks and Stones (6 Ace, Jul 14)
- Sunny Sweeney, "Don't Think Twice It's All Right (ft Miko Marks, Rissi Palmer, Tami Neilson)" single (Aunt Daddy, 23) D
- John Baumann, "Gold El Camino" Border Radio (Terlingua Spring, Oct 6) D
- Brandy Clark, "Northwest" Brandy Clark (Warner, May 19)
- Margo Cilker, "Lowland Trail" Valley of Heart's Delight (Fluff & Gravy, Sep 15) D
- Lori McKenna, "Killing Me (ft Hillary Lindsey)" 1988 (CN, Jul 21) D
- Phoebe Hunt, "Nothing Else Matters" Nothing Else Matters (Popped Corn, Jul 28) D
- Rhiannon Giddens, "You're the One" You're the One (Nonesuch, Aug 18) D
- William the Conqueror, "Puppet and the Puppeteer" Excuse Me While I Vanish (Chrysalis, Jul 28)
- Bohannons, "Somewhere in the Dark" Night Construction (Cornelius Chapel, 23)
- Jeremie Albino, "You I'm Waiting On" Tears You Hide (Good People, Jun 9)
- Langhorne Slim, "Sundown" single (Dualtone, 23) D
- Pink Stones, "Someone You Can't Move" You Know Who (Normaltown, Jun 30)
- Bright Eyes, "Middleman (Companion Version)" Casadega: a Compaion (Dead Oceans, Jun 16) D
- Jenny Lewis, "Giddy Up" Joy'All (Blue Note, Jun 9)
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