To paraphrase an '80s anti-nuke slogan, getting shot in the head can ruin your whole day. Or it can invigorate your whole being. Such was the case with Marc Cohn.
In the summer of 2005, Cohn was stuck. He'd won the 1991 Best New Artist Grammy thanks to "Walking In Memphis" from his self-titled debut CD, but he'd only managed two more albums since, the last one coming seven years earlier. Suffering from severe writer's block, Cohn booked a short tour with Suzanne Vega, figuring that playing out would help him rediscover his muse. And so it was on August 7, 2005, Cohn found himself in a Denver parking structure face-to-face with a gun-wielding would-be carjacker. Within moments Cohn had a bullet lodged in his head.
Three weeks later, as Cohn convalesced, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. The post-traumatic stress from his near-death incident combined with the devastation perpetrated on New Orleans finally did the trick. Suddenly, Cohn couldn't stop writing. "For several weeks, I'd be working on two to three songs simultaneously," he says, "and these songs weren't polite about their sudden presence either; they insisted on being written."
Join The Parade is Cohn's fourth album of warm, melodic adult pop. Joining his parade were Shelby Lynne, Charlie Sexton, Shane Fontayne, Heartbreaker Benmont Tench and The Holmes Brothers, and with song titles like "Dance Back From The Grave," "Live Out The String," "If I Were An Angel" and "Life Goes On" it's clear where Cohn's head was as he finally wrote for the first time in years.
Provenance: Cleveland, Ohio
Latest release: Join The Parade (2007)
© 2008 Nigel Music Media LLC. Used by permission.
Marc Cohn
