Since Southland Mission, Cook has performed with childhood heroes including Mavis Staples, Bruce Hornsby, John Prine, Amy Ray and The Blind Boys of Alabama. Instead of standing on the shoulders of his heroes, Cook is humbly kneeling at their feet. Each track asserts that he alone is no greater than the sum of the people who have brought him to this moment. Having only recently stepped to the center of the stage as a solo artist, Cook now takes a moment, citing the power of community as his thesis statement. Side A alone, culminating with the shiver-inducing “Another Mother’s Son,” has the capacity to light a fire in even the coldest of hearts.
Where 2015’s Southland Mission illuminated for listeners what Phil Cook hears in his head, this latest record lays bare the way that music makes him feel. With the arrival of People Are My Drug, Phil Cook is taking the spark from lights left on by musical heroes and offering a torch for listeners as they navigate their own dark corners. In present times, choosing to amplify community and positivity through art can seem like a radical act. Transforming pain and injustice into love and compassion is a rendering that has been universal to poets and prophets for centuries.
0 kommentar(er)
