Photos: Courtney Barnett Creature of Habit tour hits Denver

A four-leaf clover. A shooting star. These are typical omens of good luck. But a praying mantis?

When Courtney Barnett was working on her latest album, she struggled with writer’s block. She had been working on new material for months on end, but didn’t feel like she was creating a cohesive body of work.

Then, she picked up an old demo that her drummer and partner, Stella Mozgawa, concieved when they were working on Barnett’s 2021 album, “Things Take Time, Take Time.” Mozgawa’s song didn’t make it onto that 2021 album, but Barnett returned to the track when she was working on her latest release.

“I was really stuck on the lyrics, but also just stuck in general,” she said in a June 2026 interview with Stephen Kallao on NPR’s World Cafe. “I was living out in the desert, and I was by myself and I was having a really bad day. You know, like giving up on the song, and the album and kind of everything.”

One day, she noticed a praying mantis on her kitchen door. So she looked up what a visit from a praying mantis means, and said she “saw all these things about good luck” and “you’re on the right path” and “you’re going in the right direction.” That visit gave her the affirmation she needed to push through her writer’s block and finish what became the 2026 album, “Creature of Habit.” Mozgawa’s song, with Barnett’s lyrics, is the album’s centerpiece, “Mantis.”

The track, and the album, celebrate the beauty of the quotidian. Many have praised “Creature of Habit” as Barnett’s greatest work since her 2015 debut, “Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit.”

Barnett fans were delighted by the artist’s return to the Mile High city on Aug. 21, 2026. She played Mission Ballroom with support from avant-garde jazz musician Zoh Amba.