Eight Songs, One New Dawn: Emma Cook Releases 'Of the Morning'

There’s a certain kind of album you don’t just listen to, you live inside it for a while.

Indie-folk artist Emma Cook releases her new record, Of the Morning, feels less like a collection of songs and more like opening the windows after a long winter. Soft light. Fresh air. A deep breath you didn’t realize you were holding.

This is Emma’s first solo album since becoming a full-time musician in 2018, a milestone that feels earned, not rushed. The journey toward Of the Morning began back in October 2025 with the release of its first single, “Thirteen Moons,” a track that hinted at the album’s emotional weather: cyclical, reflective, gently powerful.

If your 20s were about becoming, Emma suggests your 30s might be about unbecoming.

In her own words, this decade has been a season of unlearning and returning to herself. Every song on this eight-track record was written during that stretch, through early-pandemic uncertainty, turning thirty, becoming a mother, and navigating a world that felt like it was tilting on its axis. She calls the album “a tender chronicle about growing the f** up,” and somehow that description feels both playful and devastatingly accurate.

The project’s turning point came during an arrangement session with producer Katie Martucci, notably around the time of Emma’s daughter’s first birthday. That moment marked a shift. For years, Emma self-produced her work, fiercely independent. But this time, she felt a new kind of openness, and a new kind of necessity. Collaboration wasn’t a compromise. It was expansion. The result is a record that feels lush but never crowded.

Brooklyn-recorded foundations were shaped at Greenpoint Recording Collective with engineer Dylan McKinstry, then polished in Nashville at Barnfire Creative with Ben Sanders. The lineup reads like a dream ensemble: Katie Martucci on acoustic guitar and harmonies, Dylan McKinstry adding percussion and zither, Michael Rinne on bass, Mark Raudabaugh on drums, Sam Talmadge on electric guitar, and even trumpet and trombone textures courtesy of Tree Palmedo and John Cushing. Harmonies float in from voices like Allie Chipkin and Lizzy Ross. The album was mixed by Scott Hudley and mastered by Philip Shaw Bova, giving it that cinematic clarity where every breath feels intentional. And Emma’s voice? It sits perfectly inside it all - warm, expressive, impossibly smooth (The Deli Magazine once called it “incomparably smooth,” and honestly, that tracks). It sways with the instrumentation rather than overpowering it. Think Maggie Rogers meets Carole King by way of the forest floor.

Thematically, Of the Morning wanders through moon cycles, forbidden fruit, climate anxiety, motherhood, and the small, luminous details that keep us tethered to hope. It’s melancholy, yes, but delightfully so. There’s humor tucked between the heavier lines. There’s acceptance where there might once have been resistance.

One standout moment is “1229,” a track known among early listeners for its feather-light touch. The vocals are almost timid, the melodies so gentle they make you feel like you’re floating just above the grass on a warm afternoon. It’s the kind of song you play while lying on your back outside, watching clouds reorganize themselves, maybe blowing bubbles into the air just because you can. And yet, none of this softness means fragility.

Emma lives by the idea that “finding ease doesn’t mean a lack of effort.” You can hear the craftsmanship in her jazz-inflected chord choices, in the way harmonies bloom at just the right moment, in how the arrangements build without ever shouting. These songs were distilled from an original fourteen, tightened and clarified into a cohesive eight-song arc that feels intentional from first note to last. The album was brought to life through a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $15,000, proving that her community is as invested in her evolution as she is. Backers didn’t just receive music, they snagged protein pancake mix, jammy t-shirts, and custom mugs. Very on brand. Very wholesome. Very Emma.

Her roots run deep. Raised in Michigan’s folk and traditional music scene, she learned guitar and piano before her teenage years and later toured from 2013–2019 with her folk-funk band Questionable Company, building a loyal following across festivals, barns, and dive bars throughout New England and the Midwest. Now based in Vermont, she’s not only a songwriter but also a beloved music educator and children’s musician, finding inspiration in nature, family, and the quiet poetry of daily life.

More than anything, Of the Morning feels like a soundtrack to healing your inner child while stepping fully into adulthood. It’s the record you play on a hot day while dancing barefoot in the grass. The one that reminds you that transformation doesn’t have to be loud to be real.

And if these songs were offered to Emma from somewhere beyond herself, as she says, then she’s handing them to us with open palms.