1. I Know a Bird
2. Omar's Blues #2
3. Down to the Well
4. Drinking From a Swimming Pool
5. The Man Who Loves to Hate
6. The First in Line
7. Denali, Not McKinley
8. I Know Better Now
9. Lucky Bones
10. Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still
11. Just the Other Side of Nowhere
12. Yesterdays and Used to Be's

Eric Brace and I toured Holland and Germany together in 2008, and it was more fun to sing together than to do separate sets. So we sang together, and we had a ball, and people clapped and smiled and sometimes bought us drinks. "We're onto something," we thought, and we made plans to record an album. We collected some of our favorite songs from some of our favorite people - every song on the album is written either by us or by a friend of ours - and then we headed to the studio with some of the greatest musicians in the world. So now there's an album out, and it has Lloyd Green and Tim O'Brien and Dave Roe and Jen Gunderman and Richard Bennett and Tim Carroll and Kenny Vaughan and Daniel Tashian and Jon Byrd on it. Hey, we've even got Scotty Huff playing the flugelhorn (Don't try that at home, friends).

Then we gave a copy to Rodney Crowell, and he said, "Eric Brace and Peter Cooper have made a new record called You Don't Have To Like Them Both. Well, guess what? I like them both, a lot. Think of what you liked best about Gordon Lightfoot, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Gram Parsons and Roy Acuff, and then thank God these lads like each other enough to offer up such a smoking good batch of songs."

And then we thought, "That was a really, really nice thing for Rodney Crowell to say."

Click on individual song titles for the stories behind the songs, and for the lyrics to "The Man Who Loves To Hate" and "Denali, Not McKinley."

-Peter Cooper

I called the greatest steel guitar player alive and said, "Lloyd, I've got these songs that I need some help with." And then Lloyd Green - the guy who played on The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo as well as major works by Paul McCartney, Charley Pride, Johnny Paycheck, Nanci Griffith, Don Williams and so many others - went to work. I gave Lloyd a batch of songs, most of which I wrote, and he transformed them. Then we called in the best players and singers we knew to round the thing out. Todd Snider plays harmonica and sings. Bill Lloyd plays a whole lot of electric guitar and contributes a bunch of harmonies. Jen Gunderman (formerly of The Jayhawks and currently of Last Train Home) plays some remarkable piano, Wurlitzer, Rhodes and accordion. Pat McInerney and Paul Griffith play percussion, Dave Roe (yeah, the guy who played with Johnny Cash for years) is on the bass, Nanci Griffith and Fayssoux McClean do some singing and other luminaries show up as well. I mean, that's Jason Ringenberg of Jason and the Scorchers playing harmonica on "They Hate Me." There are plenty of things that bother me. Living in Nashville is not one of those things.

This is my first full-length album, and I hope you like it. I must give thanks and credit to Todd Snider, who insisted that this was a good idea. And also thanks to Kris Kristofferson and Tom T. Hall, two people to whom I've always looked up, who ratified the whole deal in the end. Had Kris and Tom T. not liked it, I would have kept it to myself.

Mission Door was engineered by Richard McLaurin and Adam Bednarik, and it was mastered by Alex McCollough at YES Master. I hope it's good for a laugh, a tear or a whistle.

If you want to know more, click on the individual song titles. I'll tell you the stories behind the stories.

- Peter Cooper

Independent - 2005
Produced by Peter Cooper

1. Gospel Song
2. Andalusia
3. Nirvana Was Better Than Pearl Jam
4. What's the Use (Gold Rush Blues)
5. Thompson Street