![]() “At times, it felt like the old adage: ‘You love it so much that you’d do it for free.’ I found all these people I had great chemistry with and made me feel like that and I recorded with them. Is it a full-blown celebration of Americana, or is it more of a subtle nod to the great session musicians of today who carry on the glorious work of pioneers like Fathead Newman and Carol Kaye? “All the people who played on the record were just fantastic and it was essential that I get them for their parts,” he continued. Hearing Cook discuss the players behind the scenes of Southland Mission makes you re-evaluate just what the record is paying tribute to. The right chemistry is what I wanted to chase on this record and it started with getting the right people to play on it.” “If you have even just okay chemistry, it will affect the music and veer it in a different direction than it should go in. “Being a sideman helps you realize that chemistry between players is something that will pay off in dividends if it’s right,” he explained. Long praised as a great musician content with life in the background - whether it be part of his own group like Megafaun and DeYarmond Edison or session roles with bigger acts like The Mountain Goats and Hiss Golden Messenger - Cook witnessed first-hand the importance of having musicians connecting with one another in order to produce the best sound possible. What he wanted to do was to create a record that celebrates chemistry, something he’s come to believe is essential to music. “I wasn’t on a clock and because of that, I was able to do just what I wanted to do with this record.” “This record took the better part of two years to make,” Cook revealed. It’s something that becomes clear when realizing the genesis of the record. Southland Mission plays out more like a spiritual thesis on roots rock. But this is no weekly homily written in a week’s time for a day’s ponderance. ![]() It’s even been hailed as a musical sermon on folk and blues with its collection of songs that are both moving and inspiring from beginning to end. Phil Cook’s interpretation of this “start” on 2015’s Southland Mission has been critically acclaimed for its passionate revisiting of enduring sounds. Others though, like the celebrated musician Phil Cook, make you stop and seriously weigh the possibility that music’s just been making a steady U-Turn back to its glorious start. Some do this so well that you wonder how we ever moved past these sonic concepts. As vast as music can be, there will always be something new to uncover in timeless sounds, whether they’re ten years young or seemingly infinite. The best musicians follow suit in this restless manner, even those who break from music’s forward direction and turn an ear to the past for guidance and inspiration. It constantly sprawls from place to place as it desperately seeks out profound and novel concepts. It constantly sprawls from place to place as it desperately seeks out profound and novel concepts.Īt its core, music is a restless entity.
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