Nine months is how long it took local musician Sadie Mortensen to make and put out her debut album, “Lucky Woman.” With 10 tracks and 28 minutes of listening, Mortensen created a nostalgic, reminiscent, fun heartbreak album.
Who is the luckiest woman in the world?
As a high schooler, Mortensen had aspirations of becoming an actress.
“I wanted to be a musician but I wanted to be an actress more. I remember writing a song about how — it’s so corny — but I remember writing a song about how I was worried that it was never going to happen,” she said.
She dabbled in acting and loved film but came to realize that acting was something she was forcing. Once she realized acting was not what she wanted to do, she leaned more heavily into her music.
In 2020, she began recording music, starting with a cover of “Golden Slumbers” by the Beatles. “I had some songs that I had written that I really wanted to see come to life because music is just a huge way of expression for me. I really wanted to put something out that was personal to me,” Mortensen said.
After writing and recording music for some time, she decided in December of 2024 that it was time to make an album. A huge inspiration for the album was Mortensen’s lived experience of a breakup. “This whole album is mainly because of a breakup and most of the songs came from that. I just had so many thoughts, feelings and emotions that I needed to put into words and then the music came after,” she said.
“Lucky Woman”
The first song she wrote for the album was “Hold Me To You” with producer Kyle Henderson.
“After we wrote that I was like, ‘Ok, I need to make an album with this guy.’ It just felt so right,” Mortensen said. The song set the whole album in motion and became a symbol of the project.
“It’s what we wrote first and it kind of sparked everything. It’s one of the most bittersweet songs I’ve written,” she said. “It’s a love song but at the same time it’s not, because I wrote it after the breakup.”
This melancholy theme stretches throughout the album but there are also high energy moments. “Ruby’s Got a Gun” is a song that Mortensen wrote on a walk, thinking about a guy who had treated her sister poorly.
“It was like over and over again about me hearing about the disrespect that my friends and family had faced from men,” she said. “I remember those lyrics came to me on a walk and I just thought that I felt really good about this.”
While working on the album, Mortensen drew inspiration from several artists such as Role Model, Kacey Musgraves, Johnny Cash and Suki Waterhouse. She channeled a pop-rock feel with a western element in her music, inspired by Jesse Jo Stark.
“There were a lot of different inspirations for me. It’s kind of dangerous because I listen to pretty much everything under the sun but we had to narrow it down,” she said.
After completing the album, Mortensen debated on what the album title should be, eventually landing on “Lucky Woman.” The words embodied how the album made her feel, empowered. “For me the album is very empowering for women and also just for anyone going through something hard,” she said.
Mortensen performs at the Classic Skating & Fun Center Aug. 29 for the Classic Summer Concert Series. Listen to “Lucky Woman” here.
