Laura Cortese has announced Lucky Water, her first studio album in six years, due October 9th via Compass Records. Lead single Face the Rain is out now, accompanied by an acoustic performance video.
Written at her kitchen table in Ghent, Belgium, where Cortese has lived for nearly a decade, the song builds from plucked fiddle and airy vocals into a warm sweep of brushed drums and stacked woodwinds. It’s a meditation on resilience shaped by the particular rhythms of Belgian weather:
“Living here, the relentless grey days can get you down. I’ve learned that the sun does come out once a day. If only for 30 seconds, and you’ve gotta run outside and see it when it’s there. When it’s raining, I try to remind myself that if the sun peeks through, I should check for rainbows. One day when my daughter was pretty young, we were in the house, and she said: ‘Mama, Mama, it’s sunning and raining. Let’s go find the rainbow.'”
Laura has also shared a live take, filmed by Olivier Arsenault, Post-production by Atomic Clock
Lucky Water was recorded at Betty’s, the rural North Carolina studio run by electro-pop duo Sylvan Esso, and produced by LOLLIES (Clare Reynolds). Sessions centred on Cortese’s voice and fiddle alongside reed instruments from longtime collaborator Matt Douglas (The Mountain Goats, Hiss Golden Messenger), with Mary Bragg helping to shape the songs beforehand. Reynolds, herself a fellow American transplant, later expanded the album’s sonic world while keeping things raw and intimate.
Moving between chamber folk, roots rock and indie pop, the album traces the disorientation and wonder of building a life across borders. Cortese channels her experience as a mother, dual citizen and foreign resident into songs about identity, belonging and connection. You’re All Sound finds wonder in the chatter of childhood, Hush Now Child draws on Belgium’s “Iron Harvest” — the ongoing discovery of unexploded munitions from two world wars — and closer Adieu, Adieu raises a communal toast to resilience.
Cortese has been a regular presence on these pages, whether with her band The Dance Cards — whose Bitter Better landed in 2020 — or through collaborations with Douglas Firs. A Berklee graduate, she has shared stages with Pete Seeger, Band of Horses and The Mountain Goats, and co-founded the Boston Celtic Music Festival.
Lucky Water (October 9th, 2026) Compass Records.
Pre-Order/Save: https://found.ee/luckywater
UK dates are planned for November 2026 (more details soon).
https://thisislauracortese.com/tour