First Avenue Presents
BRENT COBB AND THEM: Sucker for a Good Time Tour with Vicky Emerson
Saturday, September 28th, 2019 / Doors 7:00pm / Show 8:00pm
All Ages
Standing
$18 Advance, $20 Day of Show
This is a standing show with an open floor. The Cedar always reserves a section of seats for patrons who require special seating accommodations. To request seating or other access accommodations, please go to our Access page.
General Admission tickets are available through First Avenue online (click the "Buy Tickets" button below), at Electric Fetus, and The Cedar during shows.
ABOUT BRENT COBB
With a Grammy-nominated album under his belt, Brent Cobb spent most of 2017 on the road, touring behind his major label debut, Shine On Rainy Day. It was a hard time to not be inspired. Anchored by southern storytelling and swampy, country-soul swagger, Shine On Rainy Day had become a critical and commercial hit, earning Cobb a long string of shows with artists like Chris Stapleton and Margo Price. He embraced the road-warrior lifestyle, picking up ideas for new songs every time his band hit the highway.
Somewhere between the whirl of shows, hotels, and truck stops, Providence Canyon began taking shape. During breaks in the band’s schedule, Cobb would return to Nashville—his hometown for a decade, ever since he left his childhood stomping grounds of rural Georgia—and head over to RCA Studio A. There, in an historic studio run by his cousin, producer Dave Cobb, he brewed up a sound that nodded to his previous material while still pushing forward. The songs were faster. More upbeat. More personal, too. Together, they formed his sophomore album, 2018’s Providence Canyon.
Named after a Georgian gully that Cobb often visited as a teenager,Providence Canyon is an evocative, electrified album about a life lived on the run. There are road songs, half-lit drinking tunes, tributes to friends and family, and nostalgic nods to one’s younger years. There are songs about returning home and songs about getting the hell out of dodge. Gluing everything together is the unforced country croon and sharp songwriting of Brent Cobb, who credits his recent touring history for inspiring the album’s quicker pace.
“I’ve always liked the funkier side of country and the funkier side of rock,” he explains. “Those influences have been a part of me for years, but they’re really coming to the forefront now. When you’re touring with Chris Stapleton, and you’re performing to a crowd of 10,000 people before he hits the stage, you find yourself wanting to play something upbeat.”
If Shine On Rainy Day felt like a laid back country album for front-porch picking sessions, then Providence Canyon is built for something bigger. This is music for juke joints, pool halls, and roadhouses, filled with electric guitar (performed by Cobb’s touring bandmate, Mike Harris), B3 organ, percussive groove, and co-ed harmonies. And while the album’s recording sessions were spread out across an entire year, each song was captured in a small number of takes, with Brent and Dave Cobb relying on instinct and spur-of-the-moment ideas. The two cousins may have grown up on opposite sides of Georgia, but they share similar backgrounds and musical instincts—two qualities that lend an earthy authenticity to these 11 songs of the south.
Technically one of the oldest songs in Brent Cobb’s catalog, “Providence Canyon” (like the album that borrows its name) glorifies the thrill of hitting the open road, while also pining for the comfort and safety of home. Those themes permeate the album. For Cobb—a longtime touring musician who’d already logged years on the road before Shine on Rainy Day’s success—there’s never been a better time to explore the interlocking worlds of family, work, home, the highway, and wanderlust. Providence Canyon is the soundtrack to that journey.
“Growing up, I didn’t know the definition of ‘providence,’” he admits. “I looked it up in my early 20s, and the definition is something like ‘the protective power of God—or nature—as a spiritual power.’ When I read that, it inspired the whole song. I was 23 at the time, and I missed the old days and the freedom of youth. Years later, I still try to keep my music honest and somehow sacred, which is why Providence Canyon felt like the appropriate title for this collection of songs. Maybe it’s got something to do with the recurring feeling of me wanting to get home all the time, even while I’m enjoying my shows more than ever. Maybe home is a providence canyon in itself.”
Visit Brett Cobb’s Website
Brett Cobb performing "Ain't A Road Too Long,” courtesy of Brett Cobb’s YouTube channel.
About Vicky Emerson
Singer/songwriter, Vicky Emerson, has been heralded by the Minneapolis Star Tribune for her gorgeous, dusky voice and songwriting chops on previous releases but her new album, Steady Heart, which she self-produced, firmly establishes her as an essential, strong female voice in Americana music. Steady Heart, has received critical acclaim, helping her to rise to #4 on the European Americana Charts, #52 on the US Americana Album Chart and #34 on the Americana Singles Chart with her hit, "The Reckoning." No Depression raved that she is "...one of the pre-eminent independent singer/songwriters working in Americana. Her lyrical acumen is readily apparent for any listener, those unfamiliar with her work and longtime fans alike, but the lean economy of her poetic musings separates her work from performers who might otherwise overdo their desired effect on the audience." Vicky is based in Minneapolis, continues to tour on a national basis and has opened for Amanda Shires, Gregory Alan Isokav, Malcomb Holcombe and Brewer & Shipley.
VISIT VICKY EMERSON’S WEBSITE
Vicky Emerson performing “Good Enough” courtesy of Vicky Emerson’s YouTube channel.