BRENT COBB, SOUTHERN STAR

I have been a big fan of Brent Cobb's music since I first listened to his debut album, Shine On a Rainy Day in 2016. Over the past seven years, Cobb has continued to grace us with albums and songs that celebrate and spotlight his southern roots and the rich musical heritage of the south. Given all this, one would think that the naming of his latest album, Southern Star, is a kind of omage to those things that have been a guiding light for him and his music. They are in a way. But Southern Star is an actual place. 

Southern Star is a small,'seedy' little bar, as Cobb describes it, about 45 minutes outside of Nashville. It is here where Cobb would hang out with guitarist and mentor 'Rowdy', Jason Cope. Cope passed a way a few years ago, but he is always with Cobb. In an interview, Cobb said about his friend, "I often thought about my buddy as someone who sort of behind the scenes had a lot of influence on a lot of people, but they may not even be aware of it. He never got to be a superstar, but if nothing else he was a Southern star.....I miss him everyday." 

Southern Star is a kind of love letter to Cobb's home state of George which from the outside looking in might be a bit eye-brow raising given much of the state's history. But Cobb has a response to those raises. "Where I’m from, every school I went to, we’re all mixed in together down here. We’re living and praying and learning and working all together. It’s easy to be on the outside and look in, and go, ‘Man, the South, what a terrible place.’ And there are some terrible things that still happen to this day, and historically that are terrible, but for the most part we’re all living and working and eating and breathing together. You don’t hear about that side of the South so much. But I think that’s why the music from here is so influencing and so profound – it isn’t just one way. And you got people that obviously have had to struggle and people who still struggle to this day, but that’s where the good shit comes from. That’s where the great art comes from, for better or worse.

Cobb is a wonderful artist makes wonderful art and Southern Star is a wonderful addition to his ever growing and celebrated body of work.