The first single from her upcoming album Of the Morning, “Thirteen Moons” is a lush blend of seasonal reflection, healing, and dreamy folk-pop textures
BURLINGTON, VT (October 14, 2025) – Indie-folk artist Emma Cook is set to release “Thirteen Moons” on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, marking the first single from her forthcoming album Of the Morning. With velvet-smooth vocals and warm, organic production, the track offers a stirring meditation on the power of returning to oneself - guided by the rhythms of nature. It's a modern folk song about moving through difficulty, and using the natural cycles and the seasons as guide points and check-ins as we expand and transform, beyond what we thought we were capable of.
“Thirteen Moons is about moving through difficulty and letting nature remind us that we’re allowed to rest, change, and come back to ourselves. We’re not always meant to be blooming.”
Emma Cook on inspiration behind “Thirteen Moons”
Produced by Katie Martucci and featuring a vibrant ensemble of Nashville and Brooklyn-based musicians, “Thirteen Moons” is a shimmering folk-pop journey reminiscent of powerhouse artists like Maggie Rogers and Phoebe Bridgers. The instrumentation is lush and expressive: acoustic guitar, layered harmonies, trumpet and trombone swell behind Cook’s evocative lyricism. The result is both grounded and ethereal - what Cook playfully calls “Carole King and Dua Lipa co-writing a song about the moons.”
Cover art for “Thirteen Moons” by Emma Cook
“Recording ‘Thirteen Moons’ was a cathartic experience,” says Cook. “As a song that I'd held so closely and spent a lot of time getting just right lyrically, landing where we did with the production was like being set free.” Lyrically, the song is inspired by the indigenous names for the full moons, and a year in which thirteen appeared on the calendar - an ancient and spiritual marker of time and change. Written after a year of personal challenges - and ultimately personal growth - Cook’s lyrics unfold like journal entries, blooming and receding with the seasons: “I watched thirteen moons, wax and wane / To return, through it all…” The single resonates with themes of mental health, seasonal transformation, and healing - inviting listeners to honor their own cycles of growth and pause.
About Emma Cook:
With her upcoming indie-folk album Of the Morning, singer-songwriter Emma Cook turns inward, offering some of her most vulnerable and finely crafted work to date. Written during a transformational stretch of life - turning thirty in the early days of the global pandemic, becoming a mother, and reckoning with a rapidly changing world - these songs reflect what she calls her “delightfully melancholic experience of being human.”
Weaving themes of moon cycles, forbidden fruit, motherhood, climate anxiety, and the everyday beauty in between, Of the Morning is, in Cook’s words, “a tender chronicle about growing the f** up.” With humor, honesty, and a soothing voice that has been called “incomparably smooth” (The Deli Magazine), Emma writes about Big Things - and the small, quiet moments that make a big life. Her expressive vocal range, jazz-inflected chord choices, and folk-rooted storytelling create a sound that’s both expansive and intimate. Think Maggie Rogers meets Carole King by way of the forest floor.
A “formidable songwriter and instrumentalist” (Seven Days VT), Emma grew up in the Michigan folk and traditional music scene, learning guitar and piano before she was a teenager. Her sound blends the folk, roots, pop, and jazz that raised her into something unmistakably her own. From 2013–2019, she toured throughout New England and the Midwest with her folk-funk band Questionable Company, playing festivals, dive bars, and barns. The group earned a loyal following and critical praise for their energy and musicianship - “leveraging Emma’s incomparably smooth vocals to create something that sounds close to magic” (The Deli Magazine).
Since then, Emma has continued to grow as a solo artist, most recently opening for Katie Pruitt and performing at the legendary folk venue Club Passim in Cambridge, MA. In late 2024, she completed her first crowdfunding campaign, raising over $15K to fund Of the Morning, her first solo project in over a decade.
Image by Macaulay Lerman
Now based in Vermont, Emma is not only a songwriter and performer, but also a beloved music educator and children’s musician in her local community. Deeply rooted in both her Michigan upbringing and Vermont home, she finds creative fuel in nature, family, and the simple joy of everyday life. “More than anything,” Emma says, “I believe in the power of music - to connect, to heal, to transform. These songs were offered to me from somewhere beyond myself, and now I offer them to you.”
When she’s not making music, you’ll likely find Emma in the garden, riding her bike, doing yoga, making soup, swimming in wild water, or reading with her kiddo by her side.