Genuinely Krause

Last November, Courtney Krause was finally able to do something that had been nearly seven years in the making: release her first CD. The 26-year-old had been writing music all her life, but that CD, titled “Thoughts and Sound,” served as a sublime timeline for Krause’s growth and maturation as a songwriter and a person.

Courtney Krause will tour and release and EP soon.

“I wasn’t certain how it was going to do,” she admitted. “It was my first album, and it’s really hard to gauge how they’ll be received. But I’ve gotten a lot of messages saying that it’s touched people. That, to me, is successful.”

Now, as winter gives way to spring, Krause is already looking toward the next project. There is a tour that she is looking at booking, a three-song EP to be released in the near future and a follow-up full-length she wants to put out within the year. That is a lot of irons in the fire, but the timing could not be better.

If there is one thing that made “Thoughts and Sound” a success, it was the sheer number of people the album touched and turned into Courtney Krause fans. Blessed as she is with one of the cleanest, strongest voices around, Krause has seen an uptick in fans locally, which has not only translated into album sales, but helped propel her to one of the Community Choice slots in next month’s Gross Domestic Product music festival.

“I had no idea we had such community support,” she said. “I’m still a little surprised at the whole thing. You work so hard trying to connect with the community. You’re reaching into people’s homes. To have that support under our belts now, it gives us so much more confidence.”

When people like what you do as an artist, it is a special kind of validation. Not because art is a popularity contest, but because, if you’re doing it right, what they are really connecting with is a piece of your soul.

“I’m always trying to be in the song,” Krause said. “I had a lot of people tell me, ‘You sound like you.’ That was the biggest compliment. No matter if I’m singing or having a conversation, I always want my voice to come from some place genuine. So, for so many people to say, ‘This really feels like you,’ that’s the greatest thing.” CV