Ok so today started the same way as the last two as the remodeling at 7-Eleven was not complete resulting in no coffee again, but musically it was a good day! In the morning I decided to listen to an album that has become a favorite of mine over the last year Peter Cooper’s Mission Door. I came across this album one day when I was looking for new music and came across the album You Don’t Have to Like Them Both by Eric Brace and Peter Cooper. I knew Eric Brace’s 
music from his band Last Train Home and I really liked their album! As I look at the tracks while I’m writing I remember that I liked just about all of them! The one that I always end up singing though after I hear it though is “Denali, Not McKinley” a song about the real name for Mount McKinley. Anyway I digress, after listening to this album, I found Peter’s solo album which is the subject of this post. As soon as I turned it on this morning and heard the first track “Boy Genius” I started to remember how much I liked the album. There really is not a bad track on the album. Stand out tracks for me include “Couple of Lies”, the Eric Taylor penned “Mission Door”, “715 (for Hank Aaron)” a great baseball song, that was included on Juli Thanki’s list of five best baseball songs on www.the9513.com, along with tunes from Steve Goodman, Todd Snider, The Gibson Brothers and Alabama, and this track probably my favorite “Sheboygan”
So if you’ve read previous posts you know that I always like to know who’s playing on the album and often in the past bought albums BECAUSE of who was playing on the album even if I didn’t know the main artist! Anyway this album has some terrific people playing on it including Lloyd Green on steel guitar and his work makes the whole album work musically. Additional musicians appeariing on the album (from Peter’s website) include:
Jason Ringenberg of Jason and the Scorchers played harmonica, Bill Lloyd, known for his work with Foster & Lloyd and as a hit country songwriter, played electric guitar and sang harmonies. Jen Gunderman, formerly of The Jayhawks and currently of Last Train Home, pitched in on piano, Wurlitzer and accordion. Dave Roe, who has toured in the bands of Johnny Cash and Dwight Yoakam, laid down acoustic and electric bass lines, and ace percussionists Pat McInerney and Paul Griffith completed the rhythm section. On a version of the Eric Taylor-penned “Mission Door,” Snider, Nanci Griffith and Fayssoux McLean (who provided harmony vocals on some of Emmylou Harris’s finest albums) all took verses.”
The album ends with another of my favorite tracks ” Thin Wild Mercury” written by Peter and another favorite of mine Todd Snider.(Video is on the sidebar) The song was included on Todd Snider’s The Devil You Know album, and it won a National Performance Activity Award at the 2006 SESAC Awards.
So if you’ve never heard Peter Cooper check out his work with Eric Brace or solo. As for me I am excited that Eric and Peter are headed to the studio to work on a new album and Peter and Lloyd Green are working on an “adventurous” album due out this year!
Peter Cooper website: http://www.petercoopermusic.com
Peter Cooper Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/petercoopermusic
Part 2 – Jimmy Smith after the break!
