Charlotte Cornfield & Al Menne
The following description comes from the event organizer.
It’s been less than two years sinceHighs in the Minusesbecame Charlotte Cornfield’s break-out—a magnetic mission-statement for the Toronto songwriter described by Rolling Stone as“Canada’s best-kept secret.” Cornfield emerged from pandemic seclusion with new fans, raisedexpectations, and her first major US tour. She could have kept touring forever; she could havefled to the woods with a four-track. She could have done anything. What she did was jump intoan old Subaru, driving seven hours south to the Hudson Valley. The car didn’t have any A/C; shehad onlyrecently earned her license; and she had never met the producer she was drivingdown to meet. But when Cornfield arrived in Hurley, NY, at the red-steepled church that is nowDreamland Recording Studios, she was ready for whatever came next. “There was this lettinggo of some of the strongheaded-ness that I think I used to have,” she says, “and an embracingof the open-endedness of life.”Cornfield had come to Hurley to work with producer Josh Kaufman, thrilled by his sublimerecordings with Cassandra Jenkins, Anais Mitchell and his own band, Bonny Light Horseman.The album they’d now make together,Could Have Done Anything,is a testament to Cornfield’suncommon life and all its possibilities, an acknowledgment that the best musicians can turnfleeting moments into timeless songs. Overnine magnetic tracks, the singer-songwriter beginsyet another chapter: gazing in the rear-view to understand where she’s been; squinting throughthe sunset to see what’s ahead.Calmer than I was,she sings in the album’s final moments.Stronger than I was / older than I was / less angry than I was...—and finally—happier than I was/ happier than I was / happier than I was...Whereas Cornfield’s preceding albums were made in familiar settings, with troupes of friends,her latest long-player reaches into the unknown. Kaufman and Cornfield (who went to schoolfor jazz drums) played every instrument themselves, from ringing guitars to cozy piano,Hammond B3, pedal steel and synthesizers. Together with engineer D. James Goodwin (KevinMorby, Whitney) and assistant engineer Gillian Pelkonen, the pair worked swiftly, impulsively,trying to shrink the gap between having an idea and putting it on tape. The resulting sound is atonce elaborate and unrehearsed; there’s a sense that it’s coming together—and coming alive—at the very moment it’s being made.