Bad Luck is Novak’s fourth album following 2018’s Someone Else’s War, 2016’s The Last Three Years, and her 2014 debut Chasing Ghosts. Novak co-produced Bad Luck with Brad Lyons, who also recorded and mixed the record out of Homewood, Alabama’s Boutwell Studios. While Novak’s songwriting takes center stage, she’s joined on the album by her husband and guitarist Kelen Rylee, drummer Blake Bolton, and pedal steel guitarist Ford Boswell. Novak plays bass and pedal steel.