Marc Cohn Biography

Marc Cohn cemented his spot as one of this generation's most captivating singer-songwriters after earning a Grammy for his melancholy ballad "Walking in Memphis," blending the accuracy of a brilliant tunesmith with the emotion of a great soul man. He crafts colorful, realistic, frequently drawn-from-life tales that inspire some of our most common human feelings: love, hope, faith, joy, and grief. He is rooted in the rich ground of American rhythm and blues, soul and gospel, and possesses a keen storyteller's pen. Cohn followed up his platinum-selling debut with two additional albums in the 1990s, during which Time magazine dubbed him "one of the most honest, emotional voices we need in this decade," and Bonnie Raitt said, "Marc is one of the most soulful, brilliant musicians I know." I adore his music, he's an amazing vocalist, and I'm constantly amazed by his ability to captivate whatever crowd he performs for. Cohn's early Atlantic albums featured guest performances by Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Patty Griffin, as his reputation as an artist and performer grew. Cohn took a ten-year hiatus from recording in 1998, returning in 2007 with Join the Parade. Parade is his most emotional and highly praised song to date, inspired by the horrible events after Hurricane Katrina and his own near-fatal gunshot just weeks earlier. "Cohn possesses one of rock's most soulful croons - a rich, instantly identifiable tenor that makes these songs his," Rolling Stone stated of his album Listening Booth: 1970, a compilation of reinterpreted classics from that landmark year in music. Cohn released "The Coldest Corner in the World" in late 2014, the title track for the documentary Tree Man and his first original song in almost seven years. On March 25, 2016, he released Careful What You Dream: Lost Songs and Rarities, along with the bonus album Evolution of a Record, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his platinum-selling debut album, which featured never-before-heard songs and demos dating back to years before his debut album and the Grammy award that followed. Marc's enthusiasm carried over into 2017, which he spent in part on the road with Michael McDonald, earning critical praise across the United States. Marc co-wrote a solid half of Bell's celebrated album This is Where I Live, including the passionate opening cut "The Three Of Me," and his writing talent was drafted for work with a roster of American music greats, including soul survivor William Bell, who won his first Grammy at the age of 78 with Marc's help; Marc co-wrote a solid half of Bell's celebrated album This is Where I Live, including the passionate opening cut "The Three Of Me." The record resurrected the sound of Stax soul's golden period, when Bell was just starting out as an artist and had had such a profound impact on Marc Cohn - in a sense, completing a circle and allowing Marc to give back to one of the genre's pioneers. Marc collaborated with the Blind Boys of Alabama on the Grammy-nominated song "Let My Mother Live," as well as David Crosby on the album Lighthouse, to examine another aspect of American music's rich history. Working with the '60s legend was a project that got directly to Marc's creative heart since he is influenced as much by the singer-songwriter tradition as he is by the history of soul and gospel. Marc will release a collaboration album with gospel veterans Blind Boys of Alabama called Work To Do in 2019, which will be published on BMG on August 9th. Work to Do features seven intimate live performances recorded at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook, CT, during a taping of the PBS series The Kate, as well as three studio tracks by Cohn and the Blind Boys (two originals, including the title track, and a version of the gospel standard "Walk In Jerusalem"). Originally, the studio recordings were intended to be released as an EP, but the enthusiasm and enchantment recorded during the filming prompted the idea to produce this unusual hybrid album. Marc will keep doing what he does best in the future: infusing American music with both a contemporary viewpoint and an appreciation for its profound origins.

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