Spend time with Courtney Hartman, and the conversation turns to journeys and paths.
The musical journey for this accomplished guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer includes a stint with Della Mae, a groundbreaking bluegrass band; collaborations with accomplished musicians from widely varying genres; a solo, 500-mile pilgrimage by foot across Spain that led to an exploration of awakenings and discovery; and many opportunities as a sought-after instructor where she’s influencing and nurturing the growing number of women studying flatpicking guitar.
The journey sometimes takes Hartman to unexpected places, but she’s confident of the path she’s on.
“It's an ever-growing evolution of what it looks like for life today and what it looks like for life this year,” Hartman says. “But since I was like 14, I don't think I ever really wholeheartedly considered other paths. And it's what I love to do.”
Hartman grew up in Colorado with nine siblings. Five of them played music together. She started on the fiddle and then took up the piano and mandolin before switching instruments yet again.
“Well, we needed someone to play guitar,” she recalls. “But more than that, I think I saw my mom taking lessons, and that was inspiring. Then, I was teaching myself how to play fiddle tunes on guitar. I was hearing Doc Watson and Norman Blake, and that was immediately inspiring to me as a kid.”
Another influence was Rebecca Frazier.
“She was in Colorado with a group called Hit and Run, and at the time, the bass player and banjo player were kind of like mentors to my siblings, and they had given us band lessons and stuff. So that band was a group that we admired a lot. And Rebecca played guitar.” (Frazier recently released an album called Boarding the Windows.)
As a teenager, Hartman played the bluegrass festival circuit. When it came time for college, many of her peers were headed for the roots program at Berklee College of Music in Boston. A friend arranged an introduction with faculty member John McGann.
“He just took me under his wing that very first visit to Boston. And he championed me in a really loving way. I felt so lucky. He passed when I was in my third or fourth year there, very unexpectedly. All of us who got to study with him felt very, very lucky for our time with him.”
After Berklee, Hartman spent seven years with Della Mae, a Boston-based bluegrass band formed in 2009. Seeing a stage filled with women playing bluegrass music was a revelation for many people. Hartman hadn’t experienced anything like that growing up.
“I would be like 14 years old, and I would be the only woman in classes or whatever. I noticed, but I didn’t really register how imbalanced it was. And so then, being that for other girls felt really important to me. And there's nothing that I loved more than having a group of young girls or just young kids in general being at the front of a stage when you're playing. That means the world to me.”
Some of Hartman’s collaborations have kept her close to her flatpicking bluegrass roots, such as Dear John, a loving take with guitarist/singer Robert Ellis on John Hartford songs. Other projects demonstrate the breadth of Hartman’s range as a songwriter, singer, and guitarist. Ready Reckoner is an ethereal, evocative, and introspective album Hartman created after walking the Camino de Santiago, a trek across Spain that has drawn pilgrims for centuries. It was an intentional disruption of everyday life that allowed her to explore the connection between walking and writing.
It also allowed her to incorporate a wider palette of sounds, styles, and musicians in the studio, including renowned jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. Despite her bluegrass roots, Hartman often crosses boundaries.
“We want to put boxes and labels on things,” Hartman observes. “But in reality, the community is much more fluid and amorphous than that. We're all inspired by playing with people from all over the world. It just makes me want to learn from other people and collaborate with other people even more.”
Hartman has been on the faculty at Bryan Sutton’s Blue Ridge Guitar Camp in North Carolina for the last three years. She strives to teach students more than the mechanics of playing the instrument.
“If instead of just going home with a new tune, if they have been vulnerable enough to learn something new or displayed the courage to be imperfect in front of a stranger--if they can take that into their life and family and work, that would be my goal. That would feel like my work had been true.”
Now, her journey has taken her to Wisconsin, and becoming a new mother has affected her touring, recording, and writing.
“It makes it more difficult to do anything in life, but it’s also better and brighter, you know?” she says. “So, I am just loving it. It's been such a total gift and a privilege to have a little one. It changes everything. And yet, we're still the same people. So, I have a new album coming out that I've been working on for the last couple of years. So, I feel extra excited about that.”
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