THE PRESS RELEASE: “Celebrated songwriter Charlotte Cornfield’s In My Corner is a four-song EP featuring two originals and covers by Lucinda Williams and Yo La Tengo. “The idea was to have some fun exploring rhythm and space in the studio without overthinking the little details that one tends to stew over while making a record,” says Cornfield. The EP’s first single, In My Corner is a spacious romp about chance encounters on the road. Track 2 is a cover of Lucinda Williams’ Fruits Of My Labour. “When I first heard this song, I was so struck by the poetry of it,” says Cornfield. “Each verse is its own stanza, and the music just lifts the words to the fore.” The other cover on the EP is Yo La Tengo’s You Can Have It All and it was only after Cornfield recorded the song that she realized that the Yo La Tengo version is actually a cover of a funk tune from the 70’s, written by Harry Wayne Casey (of Sunshine Band fame) and Richard Finch. The EP finishes with a love song called Upstate, “ ‘cause not all ballads need to be sad.”
MY TWO CENTS: Come for the covers and stay for the strong originals. Or vice versa. Either way, you’re in for a treat: Cornfield’s low-key roots balladry and soulfully dusty drawl go down smooth, sweetly disarming you and lowering your defences so her subtly superb songwriting can sneak in close and get under your skin. She’ll have you in her corner in no time.
