Elizabeth Cook is one of the most indelible voices in modern country music, and odds are most people haven’t even heard of her. She’s a singer and songwriter (real songwriter, not one of those celebrity singers who stamps their name onto other songwriters’ work), who has lived the life and earned the pedigree of an artist with gravitas: one who writes songs so filled with heart and experience that it is impossible to take her music lightly.
She was born and raised in Florida, the youngest of eleven half-siblings – the only child born to her both her mother and father. Her mother was a semi-professional “hillbilly singer” from West Virginia, as Cook has described her. And her father, well, he did a few stints in prison after he got busted for running bootlegged moonshine for the central Florida mafia.
Cook’s first album, “The Blue Album,” was recorded and released independently in 2000, sliding in with little acclaim or notice. But by the time Warner Brothers Nashville label released her second album, “Hey Ya’ll,” no one could deny Cook’s knack for songwriting and her evocatively emotional voice. She followed it up with “This Side of the Moon” in 2005, and that’s when people in the industry really began to take notice. By her third album, music legend Rodney Crowell was knocking on her door wanting to produce her next album, a collaboration that resulted in her album, “Balls,” which featured a cover of Velvet Underground’s classic “Sunday Morning.”
Cook’s next album was “Welder” with legendary producer Don Was, and it was a tribute to her father, who lived the straight life of a welder after getting released from prison.
Cook will be bringing her heartfelt catalog of songs to Zanzabar tomorrow, June 4. The show begins at 9 p.m., and tickets are still available for $15-$20.
