The band will be interviewed and perform new music selections from the acclaimed new CD project, “The Massenburg Sessions”, as well as plug their instore appearance immediately following the telecast at The Disc Exchange in Knoxville (2615 Chapman Hwy) as well as their appearance on the Tennessee Shines Show on Wednesday night, July 28, 2010 at Knoxville’s fabulous Bijou Theater.

Don’t miss this televison appearance.

Then catch the band when they appear on The Tennessee Shines Show at the Bijou Theater in Knoxville on Wednesday night, July 28, 2010 at 7:00 pm.

Disc Exchange
2615 Chapman Highway
Knoxville, TN 37920
865-573-9691

The John Cowan Band will be performing on the world famous Grand Ole Opry at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN on Friday, July 30, 2010!

Show starts at 7:00 pm CST.

John will feature a very special guest with him so you don’t want to miss this rare Opry appearance!!

Call the Opry box office now to secure tickets before it sells out!

See you there!

The John Cowan Band is set to appear as part of the Wednesday, July 28, 2010 edition of the famed “Blue Plate Special” show, heard every weekday at 12 noon on Knoxville, TN’s legendary station, WDVX.

John and the band will perform selections from his latest project, “The Massenburg Sessions”. John will also be promoting his appearance later that night as a part of the Tennessee Shines Show at the Bijou Theater in downtown Knoxville.

Don’t miss this special lunchtime performance, heard live on WDVX. You can stream it live on http://www.wdvx.com/webcast.html

Or better yet, attend the show in person at the downtown WDVX studios located at the Knoxville Visitors Center at the corner of Gay Street & Summit Hill Drive in downtown Knoxville, TN.

http://www.wdvx.com/programs/blueplate.html

John will perform a few songs from the project and discuss the album and what is happening in his musical life right now.

Please don’t miss this if you live in the Knoxville/Bristol/Johnson City tri-state area.

And catch The John Cowan Band the following night, Wednesday, July 28′th when they perform as part of the Tennessee Shines show at the famous Bijou Theater in downtown Knoxville, TN. Showtime is 7:00 pm.

http://www.wcyb.com/

http://www.wdvx.com/events/show/7

Review by William Ruhlmann

By calling this album The Massenburg Sessions, contemporary bluegrass singer/bassist John Cowan puts the spotlight on the audiophile recording and mastering engineer George Massenburg, known for his work with Linda Ronstadt and Randy Newman, among others. Cowan and Massenburg recorded the music live in the studio, with no overdubs, no editing, and even no headphones for the musicians. Of course, no mixing was required, either, with the sound achieved through placement of the instruments and microphones in the studio. The resulting sound is excellent, For listeners, this is all really inside baseball, but it seems to have allowed Cowan to achieve a spirit of performance he found conducive to his typically vibrant and eclectic approach. The former New Grass Revival member continues to look for novel ways to play bluegrass, and here he finds them by adapting the Louis Jordan jump blues classic “Caledonia”; forging a hybrid between Cajun and Celtic on the traditional “The Lakes of Ponchartrain” (while welcoming duet partner Maura O’Connell); going a cappella for the gospel tune “Jesus Gave Me Water”; and bringing out the bluegrass implications of Paul and Linda McCartney’s “Heart of the Country.” “Black Blizzard” features only Cowan’s keening tenor and Shad Cobb’s fiddle, and the album concludes with a string quartet arrangement of Cowan and Jon Randall Stewart’s “Soiled Dove.” Those are the major variations from the bluegrass format, which is given its purest expression in a version of Bill Monroe’s “Can’t You Hear Me Callin’” on which Cowan is accompanied by the Del McCoury Band, but also is found on other songs, reassuring listeners that, if Cowan wants to take bluegrass in new directions, he also is willing to play it straight.

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Our little combo has grown leaps & bounds since Mr Frazier and Mr Larrance have come on board. We have so much to say and do musically in the coming seasons. It’s so exciting to me as an artist to think of the possibilities that Jeff, Shad, John, Bryon & I are capable of stumbling onto in the creative process. It takes a whole lot more than great musicianship to grow ideas in an ensemble. If their is personal dissident,  or  disharmony amongst the members, then you have to start creating from pockets of a vacuum. To say I love Jeff, John, Shad, & Bryon would almost be an understatement, these are men of integrity, tenacity, humility, and a butt-load of musical prowess & pedigree.

We have much to do, and the most wondrous thing is that we don’t yet know what the result will be. That the magic is in the very “process” of living, laughing, creating, and perhaps a few bus breakdowns…Ha!

Again, we send our love to all of you and your families, to all of those no longer with us whom we miss so much during the holidays. To our dear brothers & sisters serving in the armed forces. As Tiny Tim (Charles Dickens) once said “God Bless Us Everyone!”

jcow

LITTLE ROCK — John Cowan has, since the breakup of the progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival in 1990, carved out a solo career that resists easy labeling, a reality that has nurtured his art if not his wallet. After a stint with the Doobie Brothers in the early ’90s, Cowan embarked on a series of solo recordings that embraced blue-eyed soul, progressive rock, blues, bluegrass and other influences. He delivered those  recordings with a bold, expressive and urgent tenor that carries an emotional authority and power that cuts to the bone and to the depths of the heart.  And Cowan delivers again on his new album, Comfort & Joy (E1).  “It never occurred to me to make a Christmas album. But as soon as I put my foot in it and started singing, I was overwhelmed … it was completely serendipitous,” he says.  Working with musician and arranger Walter Carter, Cowan says, he got to “just go in and sing.  “The arrangements were so beautiful and that made it easier for me. The tunes are so well known, Itried to sing them as straight as possible and let the arrangements carry them in a different direction.” The album includes traditional songs such as “What Child Is This,” “O Holy Night” and “The Christmas Song” along with Smokey Robinson’s “Christmas Everyday.”
“I’m a huge fan of Smokey’s,” Cowan says.  “He’s a genius. My reverence for him lends a great deal to the emotion of the singing.” The most challenging song, he says, was “Ave Maria.” “The version I know is Luciano Pavarotti’s.  It’s riveting. It is a simple Catholic prayer and that
gave me something to hang on emotionally. I must have sung it 40 or 50 times. I felt such an onus for it to be perfect. I wanted to deliver so much on it. It’s a high water mark just to attempt it. “After we finished, I realized I could have sung it a chord higher and gotten what I wanted. But I was really hard on myself about that song. When I sing it live, I sing it in D instead of C.” Cowan also sings it in English.  Comfort & Joy was recorded in July “in a studio in the middle of nowhere in middle Tennessee. “The whole experience felt pretty sacred,” he says.
Now 56, Cowan says he feels good about his singing. “Part of it is the benefit of years. I have so much freedom it’s ridiculous … aesthetically, it’s  very sweet. I get to be who I am and investigate it. And that’s always changing. I had to get through a time of looking at my peers who became superstars and get over the ‘Why didn’t I?’ stuff. It becomes ‘something’s wrong with me,’ but I got through it. I don’t need to compare my insides to their outsides any more.” Changes in the music business, he says, have been helpful.  “The Internet has helped people like me, it’s a good time for art,” Cowan says. “There are a bunch of  people in my age group who are making the music of their careers. People like Rodney Crowell, Danny Flowers, Delbert McClinton, Dave Alvin. And Maria Mulda ur, what a voice she has. So many great people are making great records with no boundaries.” And that has been a hallmark of Cowan’s career.  No boundaries, and being open to where his restless muse takes him.
And where might that be next? A clue may come from Comfort & Joy. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” seems inspired by the swing of the Hot Club du France’s Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli.  “I tried to sing ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ as a jazz singer; we’re edging into that area,” Cowan says of the music he and his band are making.  “It’s starting to sound like an acoustic blues and jazz thing.”

Other singers would crawl through broken glass to borrow John Cowan’s larynx for 15 minutes. While Cowan has
always remained loyal to the progressive bluegrass he helped define in the ‘70s as the singer/bassist for New Grass
Revival, fans of the genre and the pilgrims who make it to the big summer roots festivals know that Cowan can sing
pretty much anything. From high-lonesome bluegrass to banshee wails that no one (except maybe Adam Lambert)
can touch, Cowan manipulates his diamond-clean skyrocket of a voice with enormous control, timing, and taste.
This season, the singer is on a roll. Hot on the heels of a live record from Telluride, Colorado, where Cowan is a
superstar, he has recorded his first full-length Christmas album, Comfort and Joy.
Given Cowan’s ability to go big, he could have easily made a string-laden, kettle-drum exercise in yuletide
schmaltz. Thankfully, though, Cowan holds true to his roots, and his band, by recording Christmas standards with
little more than acoustic guitar (the phenomenal Jeff Autrey), fiddle (Shad Cobb—how Silver Dollar City is his
name?), bass (Cowan himself, an underrated player), and mandolin (John Frazier). Drummer Bryon Larrance shows
up on half the songs, but this is primarily an acoustic, string-band affair, and it’s a treat to hear the players fill out the
arrangements on standards like “The Christmas Song” and “Silent Night” through Frazier’s tremolo playing and
Cobb’s drowsy fiddle countermelodies.
The record’s record’s understated beauty is an impressive instrumental achievement. Cowan has always surrounded himself
with bluegrass’s most promising young pickers, graduating Randy Kohrs, Luka Bula, Scott Vestal, etc., from his
finishing school, and his current group demonstrates remarkable versatility and grace on these songs, particularly on
the swing-waltz of “What Child Is This?” and a sultry, jazzy “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”. “God Rest Ye Merry
Gentlemen” is given the most clever rewrite, sounding like a John Cowan Band original, with carefully arranged
instrumental lines and hot improvisational breaks. Elsewhere, there’s less going on, especially on the big, soaring
classics like “O Holy Night” or “Ave Maria”, onwhich Cowan’s voice is accompanied only by quietly picked acoustic
guitar and mandolin. Those hoping Cowan will belt these songs out in his signature canyon-rattling call won’t
necessarily be disappointed—he’s in exultant voice throughout, and he stabs those high notes like there’s nothing to
it—but he also sings these hymns with the restraint that they deserve. The spareness of the arrangements and the
unadorned, product-free treatment of Cowan’s voice make for stunning vocal takes that belong in the Johnny C
time-capsule.
Comfort and Joy’s method is to toggle between those standards and peppier, more obscure holiday tunes. The album
opens with Smokey Robinson’s jaunty “Christmas Everyday”, which is lots of fun and a perfect match for Cowan.
“Little Match Girl” is a new mountain-folk song written by Cowan’s stepdaughter, Jenny Anne Mannan, who sings
harmony on the track; the nepotism works just fine as the song—a tear-jerker—holds its own among the chestnuts.
“Good News” is a gospel-grass tune that has Cowan playing call-and-response with his band over a backdrop pf
Autrey’s fingerpicking pattern and a thumping bass drum.
Toward the end of the record, the band decides to rock a little—and Cowan is equally impressive in this mode; one
wonders why he didn’t make a fortune on the Sunset Strip in the mid-‘80s fronting a pop-metal band. The song is
“Let’s Make a Baby King”, a live staple of Cowan Band shows, and shoe-horned here onto Comfort and Joy. Singing
the second verse is the amazing soul-shouter Mike Farris, another of Nashville’s fiercest vocalists, and it’s a hoot
to hear these two together. The song feels out of place as too raucous for the record, but that’s really a minor quibble.
The fact is, considering the number of treacly Christmas releases every year, Cowan has made not just a terrific
Christmas album, but one good enough to transcend the category and perhaps the best of his career. In any case, it’s
an album that you’ll look forward to hearing each December. Now pass the nog.