Peter's Journal

How to Lose A Grammy, by Peter Cooper (originally appeared in The Tennessean)

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:00:00 GMT

My favorite Grammy moment of 2012?

That’d be when presenter Dan Konopka of rock band OK Go said, “And the Grammy goes to.....”

That was a moment of significant hope, right before Konopka announced the winner, mumbling something that sounded to me like, “Definitely not Peter Cooper.”

That’s right, you are reading the word stylings of the Grammy-losingest columnist in Nashville history.

I was nominated with my pal and singing partner Eric Brace, for co-producing I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow. We recorded new versions of Tom T.’s circa-1970s children’s songs, like “I Love,” “I Care” and “Sneaky Snake,” songs that were a big part of my childhood. Tom T. and his wife, songwriter Dixie Hall, invited us to record at their home studio, and we gathered a bunch of our favorite musicians for a big and joyful time.

The impetus for the project was the birth of my son, Baker, who attended the recording sessions at the ripe old age of 10 weeks. I wanted him to grow up hearing these great songs, sung by his dad and by people he would grow to know and care about.

I dedicate my Grammy loss to him.

How come losers don’t get to send out press releases? Here’s one:

“Peter Cooper and Eric Brace are disgusted and perturbed after I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow was not named best children’s album of 2011 at the 54th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

‘It’s bad enough to lose, but to lose in a contest voted upon by industry peers is especially troubling,’ Cooper slurred at a whiskey-drenched, post-ceremony reception.”

Kidding, folks. Just a little Grammy loser humor. I’ve Googled “Things deserving of sympathy” and “Spending four days in California after being nominated for a major award” is pretty far down the list of results. It actually is an honor to be nominated. Elmo wasn’t this year, and neither was Toby Keith.

Plus, the nomination drummed up some extra publicity for the album, which is a wonderful collection of songs that makes a great gift, though I would certainly never use this space for gratuitous self-promotion because I’m not that kind of guy.

Most of all, I was glad to be able to shine a light on Tom T. Hall, a brilliant man whose songs transformed the language of country music.

Maybe we should have covered Bobby Bare’s children’s songs instead.

Wait, did I type that out loud?

I’ve covered the previous 11 Grammy Awards for The Tennessean, but this is the first time I was able to experience Grammy week as a participant rather than a chronicler. It’s more fun when you aren’t taking notes. It’s also more impressive to watch the shows (there’s an afternoon, pre-telecast show where most awards, including the one I didn’t win, are handed out) from the audience instead of from a cramped backstage press room. Watching hundreds of workers constructing, moving and removing the dozens of intricate stage sets is a mind-boggle, as is the decision of whether to watch Paul McCartney or Bruce Springsteen when they’re standing on the same stage.

Boss? Beatle? Beatle? Boss?

I left for California last Thursday, so Eric and I could play a couple of shows in Los Angeles, in hopes of paying for our Grammy clothes. (Alas, no one asked who we wore, and we knew the answers: Katy K, Manuel and J.C. Penney.) My flight out to LA was filled with nominees and bigwigs, including Alison Krauss, the winningest female in Grammy history. Before the flight, I told Alison she’d better watch her back. “If I win this Grammy, I’m only 62 behind you,” I said.

“Very nice,” she said, smiling and maneuvering towards the front of the boarding line.

Whatever, Krauss. I don’t even want to be the winningest female in Grammy history.

Alison and her Union Station band won for best bluegrass album, by the way.

I lost.

But that’s alright. A lot of my friends lost, too, and that always makes me feel better.

And a bunch of worthy people weren’t even nominated. Paul Simon released one of the best albums of his career, So Beautiful or So What, last year, and it didn’t get nominated. And he’s Paul Simon, and Paul Simon’s great.

If the good stuff doesn’t always win, does that mean the Grammys aren’t relevant? Nope. They’re the Grammys. They have those gleaming gold gramophone trophies that you can place in a prominent living room spot, where invited guests can walk in the door and exclaim, "Hey, did you win a Grammy Award?" Thanks to my loss, I'll now have to say, "No, I stole that from Alison Krauss."
What do I have from my Grammy experience? Really nice memories of warm weather and smiles, of rubbing shoulders (only shoulders) with adult movie dude Ron Jeremy, Weird Al Yankovic and other randoms, of celebrating music and of seeing the impact that music and musicians have on others: I didn’t know Whitney Houston, but the looks on the faces of those who did told me what I needed to know.

When the awards were over, we dropped by a party and then took a cab back to the hotel and had a room service dinner. I worked on a lesson plan for the class I teach at Vanderbilt (the lesson was about Country Music Hall of Famer Tom T. Hall), and then I went to sleep. The next morning, I drove to the L.A. airport, listening to one of my favorite albums, Paul Simon’s gorgeous Still Crazy After All These Years. I drove and thought, “Hey, this one didn’t win a Grammy, just like albums I hold dear by Townes Van Zandt, Eric Taylor and even Tom T. Hall.” The award doesn’t make the work. The award is an add-on, a bonus, sometimes even an afterthought. If Still Crazy After All These Years didn’t win a Grammy, I can just accept my experience for the fun time that it was. I can have a shiny memory without having a shiny trophy.

(ed. note: Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years won a Grammy album of the year award in 1976, but we don’t have the heart to tell Peter.)

Reach Peter Cooper at (615-259-8220) or pcooper@tennessean.com.

July, 2011

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:43:46 GMT

Tornados hit East Nashville in the late 1990s and knocked down anything natural and wooden, and so there's precious little left here in the way of shade. We've had some trees planted, but they take a while to grow up into anything that'll subdue the misery index. That's all fine, as Eric Brace and I are playing Houston on July 22, so this'll serve as a training camp. "It's hotter than concrete/ July in Houston/ And it'll get even worse before it turns nice," Lyle Lovett wrote. I trust he's true to his word, but we're sure looking forward to getting down there anyway. On the way down, Eric and I will be playing a concert, from some hotel room, and you can watch it if you like. We've been doing regular shows through www.stageit.com, and I've come to be a fan of StageIt both as a musician and as a fan. The idea is that someone you're interested in checking out (in my case, I always watch songwriter Don Schlitz's StageIt shows) is playing a show wherever they happen to be, and the StageIt folks allow that show to be beamed from their room to wherever you are, via some kind of complicated computer stuff that I don't understand. But I don't have to understand: To watch a Schlitz show, I just go to the site, pay a small (I think it's a dollar or something) fee via my triple-platinum, Americana-certified credit card and sit back and watch/listen to the show. And to play shows, I just head to the Red Beet Records headquarters or to wherever we're staying on the road, someone points a laptop at me for the video feed and we adjust a few microphone levels for the audio, and then we're on. Lots of gigs planned soon, and you can check the "dates" page for those. I'll be doing a better job keeping this "Journal" up to date, as I'm going half-time at The Tennessean newspaper in order to concentrate more on music-making. Please email me directly at peter@petercoopermusic.com if you're interested in setting up a show in your town. Have van and tunes, will travel. Baby needs shoes. -Peter Cooper

March 8

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 06:18:32 GMT

Lots of good stuff going on while I'm sitting here waiting for the other shoe to drop. Apparently, Eric Brace and I are playing shows this month with Todd Snider, Dan Navarro and... gulp... Country Music Hall of Famer Tom T. Hall. Check the "Dates" page for more information. We're with Snider in Greenville, SC, with Navarro in the DC area and with Tom T. at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. Those of you who show up super-early to my shows (thank you!) know that most nights I sound check with John Prine's "Souvenirs." Prine's songs contain so many lessons, chuckles, tears and smiles, and I'm really looking forward to playing those shows and to watching three nights of John Prine and his great band in concert. We've been piecing together plans for the late May launch of "I Love: Tom T. Hall's Songs of Fox Hollow," an album that features many great artists (I've gotta check with our biz-peeps before revealing the names of all our wonderful collaborators). In the 1970s, Tom T. did "Songs of Fox Hollow," which stands as my favorite album of children's songs, and last summer we all hung out at his house (it's called Fox Hollow) and recorded this tribute. There are plenty of photos up on Facebook if you want to check it out (and see the folks involved). What else is happening? Well, I'm watching spring training baseball games on television, helping to raise a kid who is cute enough to call my paternity into question, occasionally hosting and performing on the Music City Roots radio show in Nashville (musiccityroots.com), writing for The Tennessean, teaching a country music history class at Vanderbilt, touring and trying to write a few new songs in the midst of all of this. How are you? Hope you're well. -Peter Cooper

Chart Madness

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 07:18:25 GMT

Tom T. Hall once said that music awards involved finding out you were in a contest you didn't realize you had entered, then being disappointed when you found out that you had lost. Music charts can be like that as well, and there are plenty of charts these days. Right now, my new CD, The Lloyd Green Album, is No. 1 on the Roots Music Report chart and nowhere at all on the Americana chart. And my new duo CD with Eric Brace, The Master Sessions, is in the Top 40 of the Americana chart and nowhere at all on Roots Music Report. The previous Eric Brace and Peter Cooper album, You Don't Have To Like Them Both, made it into the Americana Top 10, and a song from it was No. 1 on the Folk DJ chart. My debut album, Mission Door, went to No. 2 on the Euro-Americana chart, a situation that caused me to ponder what on earth the Euro-Americana chat was, and then to be jealous of whoever it was that was at No. 1. Mind you, I'm not complaining a bit. If I wasn't interested, I wouldn't know any of this stuff. And I have in the past and present hired people to promote the music to interested radio stations. I am always thrilled when music is played on the radio: Last weekend, I heard the should-be Country Music Hall of Famer Jack Clement introducing a song of mine on Sirius/XM radio, and I won't even pretend that such a thing isn't meaningful to me. Music of the sort that I make, that Eric and I make and that most of my songwriting heroes either make or made isn't in fashion at Top 40 country stations these days. That's no knock at those stations, although I can certainly knock ("Farmers Daughter" is Top 10, and Jamey Johnson isn't?). Contemporary country is whatever it is, and if it wasn't raking in listeners and advertisers being what it is then it would be something else. Being interested in charts doesn't mean I think music's worth is bound to those charts. Some of my favorite records are Willis Alan Ramsey's self-titled debut, Eric Taylor's Scuffletown, Joe Henry's Kindness of the World, Guy Clark's Old No. 1 and The Wright's current Red and Yellow, Blue and Green, none of which were/are chart successes to my knowledge. Music is music, not sports. The cream doesn't necessarily rise. And I also accept the argument that in music there's no cream: I don't go home and listen to Justin Bieber, whereas plenty of 15-year-olds do. That doesn't mean that my opinion is worth more than any of those kids' opinions, anymore than it means that my Tuesday vote is worth more than yours. Mostly, I'm happy to be out there playing music on stages. My bucket list stage was always Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, and I got to play there recently, singing with Eric and opening for Don Williams. Keith Urban, who does fine on all sorts of charts, texted me the day of the gig to say, "Don't be nervous... it's just the (something or another) Ryman!!!!!!!!!!" The building's excellence isn't merely a product of its historical import. Playing that stage feels like playing inside of the world's biggest guitar. The sound is all-enveloping. Plus, the audience was enthusiastic and kind, and my boy, 6-month-old Baker Cooper, took a bow at set's end. Took me 40 years, took him half a year. Again, that's no knock. He's a good looking young man, and he's already singing along to Tom T. Hall. What else is going on? Glad you asked, or glad to ignore the fact that you didn't. Works either way. I'm having a ball, playing shows all over the place. Eric and I have plotted out the rest of our year, with duo shows on the east and west coasts and in the midwest, and I'm ending the year in my native South Carolina. And I have completed tracking on next year's major project, which is likely to be called I Love: Tom T. Hall's Songs of Fox Hollow. It's a tribute to Tom T's great children's album, and it features performances from Tom T., Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Duane Eddy, Bobby Bare, Fayssoux McLean, Jim Lauderdale, Elizabeth Cook, Tim Carroll, Gary Bennett, Yours Truly, Eric Brace, Jon Byrd and many more. Lloyd Green is on steel, Jen Gunderman plays keyboards, and there's a rhythm section of Mark Horn and Mike Bub. It'll come out as a co-endeavor of Red Beet Records and the Country Music Hall of Fame. And it's just about my favorite thing in the world, chart or no chart. In the meantime, please drop me a line if you've anything to mention. I'll answer all mail sent to this website, from gig inquiries to complaints. Yours in Chartdom, Peter Cooper

Oct. 11

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:24:24 GMT

Just home from a fun run up to Staunton, Va. and Huff's Church, Penn. with duo partner/pal Eric Brace. Allow me to explain a little about the misery of the road. We had to get up early Friday morning to drive up to Virginia in the autumn sunshine. And it's a long drive, so we had to bring an eight-CD Louvin Brothers boxed set and a four-CD Emmylou Harris boxed set and some other favorite albums. And we had to stop at our favorite Thai place in Knoxville, Taste of Thai (exit 378 off I-40), for lunch. And we had to look at the beautiful scenery along the way. And then we had to have a fantastic meal at The Mockingbird in Staunton before playing to a great crowd full of friends and luminaries (Robin Williams - not the Mork from Ork guy but the guy from Robin & Linda Williams who co-wrote "Rollin' and Ramblin' - was there and was extremely kind and gracious). Then it was off to the lovely home of lovely friends for a good night's sleep. On Saturday, it was late sleeping, followed by lunch at Jack Brown's Beer & Burger Joint (highly recommended), followed by more driving, this time up through the Shenandoah Valley to the blue roads of rural Pennsylvania. We made it to Barto's Landhaven Bed & Breakfast in time for another great meal, and soundcheck, and a gig in what must be one of the coolest venues in America. Ed and Donna Land run this place, and we talked with them at length before the gig, hearing bits of two amazing life stories. You know you're in a pretty good conversation when someone says, "I really enjoyed working with Peter Jennings." Then it was another fun show, this time with steel guitar work from our friend Dave Van Allen. Then more conversation, some weary but happy goodnights and another good night's sleep. See, you people simply don't realize how hard it is out there on the road. Next weekend, we're back in Virginia, for shows in Ashland and Roanoke. More friends, more conversation, more songs, etc. It's hard to express how much fun this is right now. Eric and I have new songs to sing, from two new albums, and we've been doing this together long enough now to anticipate each other's next move but not long enough for things to feel stale or rote. Dare I say, it's a fun show to play and, we're told, a fun show to watch and hear. Things are going great with the new albums. So pleased to have new songs out there, and so pleased that the recorded versions of those songs feature some of the masters of American music. Every time my new The Lloyd Green Album is written about, I smile to see Lloyd's name featured so prominently. He is the Sandy Koufax of the steel guitar, and he's playing better now, in his 70s, than he did 40 years ago. Amazing but true. For those who have expressed concern about Lloyd's health, the good news is that his bum knee is feeling less bummy and he anticipates a fast return to performing. Otherwise, all is well. At home, we've got a six-month-old baby boy, learning and growing and smiling every day. I'm still writing for The Tennessean, and still teaching about the history of country music at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music. And I got a little boost this week when I entered into an agreement to endorse D'Addario guitar strings. They're the ones I like using, so this is like being asked to endorse the Green Bay Packers, or being asked to endorse Kris Kristofferson's Spooky Lady's Sideshow album. Hope to see you at a show sometime soon. I'll be the one looking sour and irritated. It's very hard out there on the road.

Early October

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 07:30:00 GMT

Finally fall. Autumn, that is. Golden leaves. Amber liquor. Guitars and airplanes, Packers football and post-season baseball. All good. Summer was hot and hard and long, and no one shall weep for its passing.

In Nashville, we had three days of spring rain that destroyed lives and property, followed by an unprecedented run of heat that destroyed grass and sanity. I spent several weeks touring in Europe, and that was hot, too. Those nice folks don’t believe in air conditioning. Still had fun, though. The most fun this summer was just outside Nashville, at Tom T. Hall’s home studio, recording new versions of the songs from his Songs of Fox Hollow album. I sang and played and produced, and Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Duane Eddy, Bobby Bare, Last Train Home, Elizabeth Cook, Fayssoux Starling McLean, Tim Carroll, Gary Bennett and lots of other wondrous folks contributed. You want to know what it’s like to finger-pick an acoustic guitar a few feet from where Patty Griffin is singing? Dang straight, you do. The album will come out in 2011. Details to follow, but some of the evidence is already on Facebook, I’m told.

Right now, I’m touring in support of two new albums. One is a solo release called The Lloyd Green Album, and one is a duo release with Eric Brace called The Master Sessions. Both are available through www.redbeetrecords.com. They’re on iTunes also, but the hard copies sound better. The Lloyd Green Album features pedal steel great Lloyd Green on... well, on pedal steel. It also features Rodney Crowell, Kim Carnes and other nifties. The Master Sessions finds Lloyd splitting solos with Dobro hero Mike Auldridge. The albums are filled with full-circle moments for me, and right now people are saying nice things about them. All I can say is that they sound exactly like I wanted them to sound, only more so. Can’t say I’m proud of ‘em, because pride is a sin.

Random thoughts:

Kevin Gordon and Jon Byrd are working on new albums, and I can’t wait to hear them.
The best investment I’ve ever made was my record player.
Aaron Rodgers of the Packers is getting better and better. And his last name is spelled exactly like Jimmie Rodgers.
I can’t help but pull for Brett Favre when he’s not up against the Pack.
I finally found a great headstock tuner for guitar. It’s by Planet Waves, and it costs less than $30. www.planetwaves.com.
Every couple of months, I re-read Alanna Nash’s Behind Closed Doors and Frye Gaillard’s Watermelon Wine, my two favorite books about country music. I also frequently re-read Tommy Womack’s The Cheese Chronicles, my favorite book about rock ‘n’ roll. Oh, and anything by Peter Guralnick works just fine.
Hope you enjoy the new website, as conceived and executed by web guru guy Tim Lybarger.