Music City Roots
There were a lot of photographers at the Music City Roots show I performed two nights ago at the Loveless Barn on the outskirts of Nashville. Guitarist and The Conjurer co-producer Thomm Jutz and percussionist Kirby Ferris joined me on the stage for a set that rocked the house.
There was quite a team of photographers there, here are some of their photos. Soon as the video from that show goes up on their website, I’ll post it here, too.
As we get ready for the Big Show at Music City Roots tomorrow night, here’s a nice write up in this morning’s Tennessean:
“I write things occasionally that may be what they’re looking for on Music Row, but everything I do is based around my touring and my fan base,” he said. “That’s where I try out all my songs. One thing I’ve noticed is that the things of mine that are most popular with my audience are by and large not the songs that people in the music business necessarily ‘get.’ And that’s OK. I can be as eclectic as I want, now.”
Do you have a computer? (OK, that’s rhetorical question, obviously if you’re reading this you’ve got a computer…) you can tune in to one of my performances next week.
I’ll be appearing on “Music City Roots – Live from the Loveless Barn,” on Wednesday, May 12. The show begins at 7PM, and you can tune in from wherever you’re reading this post: The entire program is broadcast live on WSM 650-AM is also available as a streaming audio feed from the WSM website, http://wsmonline.com
And if you’ve got an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, you might want to download the WSM app and so you can listen in your car or wherever you happen to be. It’s a great app, and a great way to stay in touch with the original source of roots and country music in Nashville.
From the MCR website:
Music City Roots is a weekly, two-hour radio show that revives the historic legacy of live musical production on the legendary WSM-AM. Broadcast on Wednesday nights from 7pm to 9pm,CST, Music City Roots showcases Nashville’s astonishing music scene, from country and Americana to more progressive interpreters of tradition — a “roots and branches” format that brings together fans of different tastes and generations. Presented live from the stage of the Loveless Barn, this show will showcase purveyors of authenticity across many genres.
Appearing on the bill with me that night are host Jim Lauderdale, the irrepressible Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jessica Styles and the Two Man Gentleman Band. Steer your browser to WSMonline.com to tune in.
And join the legions who’ve said they’ve be “attending” via my Facebook Event Page.
…I must be packing to go “on the road” again. Although I could swear I just got back…
Performing at the Essany Open Mike April 14, 2010
One of the gigs I did on my last trip was as the “featured performer” at the Essany Open Mike Night in San Francisco. Somebody who goes by the handle “Slightholder” shot some nice photos that he’s posted to flickr. They’re some nice photos but I can’t remember now who took them. That’s a funny thing about this Internet thing, ya know…?
Meanwhile, my new CD The Conjurer is starting to generate some very favorable press. The Waco Tribune last week published this nice item in anticipation of a show I’ll be playing this weekend at Waldo’s Coffeehouse.
Would love to stay and chat a while, but there’s packing to do and miles to cover, I’ll see y’all in Texas over the weekend, and then it’s off to the upper midwest for some shows with my good friend Brandon Sampson.
Today is Thursday, March 25 – the long-awaited day when The Conjurer finally goes on sale "on desktops everywhere" from the "music store" link at the top of this website. It is also available via iTunes and should be available from CDBaby later today.
But wait, there's more! In addition to today's official release of The Conjurer, we've also restored Dana's 2001 release –Harry Truman Built A Road — to the catalog. The actual CD is still out of print, but thanks to the miracle of modern technology, Harry Truman is now available in the music store via digital deiivery (aka (download). This is the only place where Harry Truman is available in any form.
But that's not all! In addition to The Conjurer, in addition to the digital release of Harry Truman Built A Road, we've assembled "The 21st Century Collection." The compilation includes all three of the CDs Dana Cooper has released since the turn of the millennium: Harry Truman, Made of Mud, and, yes, The Conjurer — all downloadable with a single click for just $21.00. If you're not familiar with Dana's earlier work, stop by the music store, where you can listen to 8 tracks from The 21st Century Collection in their entirety (no 30 second clips around here!).
Dana celebrates the release of The Conjurer with three shows in Austin, Houston, and Dalls Texas this weekend . Check the schedule in the sidebar on the right for details, and by all means stop by and say hello if you can make it to a show.
This just in from the San Antonio Express:
Dana Cooper at Scenic Loop Café Nashville-based, Texas-tempered songwriter is touring with his new CD, "The Conjurer." Cooper's songs are not tricks. They're gems created by a mixture of talent and the high pressure finishing that comes from making a living working in front of fans and the uninitiated. If Cooper makes it looks easy, that's because he's a fine craftsman.
Musicians all have resumes that tout their experience with statements like “…. has shared the stage with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan…” etc. etc. OK, maybe not a whole lot of musicians can cite precisely those experiences. But now Dana Cooper can say that he has “shared a screen” with no less a box-office star than Russell Crowe. Both are featured this week at a new pop-culture site, ScreenRave.com. Check it out:
The “In the Spotlight” article is a great feature about Dana, and if you click the “Music” link in the top-level menu and follow the link to “Browse Music,” you’ll the video of “Enough” featured there as well.
Dana Performing in Pensacola, FL in 2009
Here’s a great write-up from a site called “ScreenRave.com:”
First let me say “I watched him in a live one-man show with a harmonica around his neck and a guitar hanging at his side”. Cooper was performing in Pensacola, Florida at “The Greater Gulf Coast Arts Festival” in 2009. He stood alone on stage with only the two instruments to keep him company. And I thought “This could be interesting”. Then he began to play, one track gave way to another and soon the crowd was as happy to see this as I was. “Phenomenal” is the only word that came to mind. I honestly felt that other people on stage (such as a drummer, backup guitars, or any other instrument) could have done nothing to improve his performance, which is to say “Wow, the dude can kick it”!
Read the whole story by Dan Suggs here.
Thanks for visiting the new Dana Cooper website.
We’ve just located to new servers and set up a new site using the WordPress “Content Management System.” That should make for a highly interactive site so that fans can communicate with Dana and each other as Dana travels about the country and the world.
Bear with us while we rearrange the furniture, hang the photos and get the stereo set up. Should be fun once we get it all together.
Dana Cooper Works “Magic” On His New Album*
The New CD by Dana Cooper
NASHVILLE, Tennessee — “The idea of a conjurer, of someone who pulls something out of the air, makes me laugh,” says Dana Cooper. “It definitely describes how I see myself as a songwriter and performer. There’s a mystery and magic in songwriting. You have to keep believing you can pull the next idea out of a hat. In another way, someone who performs for the public has to be a conjurer, too. You have to be able to stand there and believe you can dazzle people with your next trick.”
Cooper has customarily named his albums after song titles. The Conjurer departs from that tradition, and rightly so, as it’s a singular album within the veteran singer-songwriter’s canon.
The title was inspired when the album’s art director, Jeff Thorneycroft, envisioned a CD cover designed to look like an old magician’s poster. It displays Cooper in a turban gazing with concentration into a crystal ball, while small images of travel, time, musicians, money, wine and a midnight moon swirl in the crystal light. On the road for more than three decades, Cooper recognizes that stepping on stage in front of a different crowd night after night takes no small amount of trickery.
But here’s where the metaphor ends: Cooper’s new set of songs prove once again that there’s no sleight of hand involved in crafting and presenting music this powerful and meaningful. The seasoned singer-songwriter has grown into a master craftsman where every word has a purpose, every chord has a reason. The Conjurer represents his best work because, with each album, Cooper has grown more incisive in his songwriting and more confident and nervy in interpreting his own material.
Understandably, improving one’s craft comes with age. What’s remarkable about The Conjurer is how inspired and energized Cooper sounds. Like any great artist, he has responded to his times, penning uplifting songs about perseverance and about finding the positive in life during an era when economic pressures have once again made many lives tougher. Of course, Cooper’s gift is in finding fresh, often personal ways to speak to universal feelings, as he does in “Good Place to Begin,” “Leave a Little Mark” and “Enough.”
“I’ve always liked songs about hope,” he explains. “I think particularly in times like these, you want to uplift people. There’s plenty of darkness in the world, it’s all around us. I don’t avoid that in my writing, but I like to point out that there’s light even amid the darkness. I’ve found people respond to those songs, they want to hear about others who make it through and who look for the positive in everyday things.”
Similarly, The Conjurer deals with being alive during wartime, and a moment in history fraught with uncertainties and unforeseen dangers. Cooper deals with these themes with inventive allegories and with age-old tales of men who deal with the problems brought on by the adversity of doing battle.
“I wanted this record to be less polished and more reckless in a way,” he said. “I wanted to get a live sound, something really ragged and rough at times, and my co-producer and guitarist Thomm Jutz proved perfect for that. It really worked well for this set of songs.”
Cooper praised Jutz’s preparation, saying his thoroughness in working up the songs ahead of time, and in setting up the musicians in the studio, helped provide a comfortable atmosphere where Cooper and his collaborators could be spontaneous. “I can be a perfectionist and drive everyone crazy in the studio,” Cooper relates. “But this time I let that go, and we cut every song in two or three takes. In the end, I like how in-your-face it sounds. It’s wonderfully engineered, it has a nice balance to it, but there’s also a real live upfront energy to it, too.”
(The Conjurer goes on sale to the general public (mostly through various online retailers) on March 25. 2010. It is available only at Dana Cooper’s live performances until then. Check the schedule in the sidebar (on the right there) to see when he’s playing at a venue near you. Click the “Free Downloads” link at the top of the page to listen to our download the latest free release from the album.)
