Phil Cook: All In The Family – An Interview

Phil Cook is bringing the Southland Revue to the Newport Folk Festival this summer. Pretty much all you need to know about it is summed up in this addictive rendition of “Northeast Texas Women,” featuring Amelia Meath on vocals. This summer, the Revue will also feature The Blind Boys of Alabama. Phil was the band leader on their 2013 album “I’ll Find A Way.”

Last fall, Phil released Southland Mission, and it’s become a favorite in my household. He tours with his band the Guitarheels and is also seemingly omnipresent, playing on some of the best albums of the past few years, including Hiss Golden Messenger and William Tyler. Last fall, when I spoke with Charlie Parr about working with Phil on his album Stumpjumper, Charlie said, “You meet him and you love him and it’s like you never could have felt any other way about him.”

I got to chat with Phil recently about Southland Revue, community and family, and giving himself permission to play the music he loves.

RLR: Maybe I can take a stab at what I think Southland Revue is and you can correct the record and fill in the gaps. I think it is this: Phil Cook gets amazing people together to share the stage and it’s awesome. What am I missing?

PC: That’s a pretty good summation! There’s definitely a familial approach in all things I strive to do. I try to bring the community I come from and I love to wherever I travel. I’m old enough to know that not everyone has that and that everyone deserves it.

RLR: I feel like everything I hear these days that is both new and exciting and grounded in a deep sense of music history is coming out of Durham, North Carolina. What have you found in that community that allows for that combination of groundedness and growth?

PC: Durham is a unique place and always has been. There’s a real spirit to Durham and you feel it when you get here. It continues to unravel as this dichotomy of a southern town that is also a bastion for opportunity, growth, and breaking the mold. In general, it’s good to know that Durham’s been turning heads for a long time. Centuries ago, Durham had “Black Wall Street,” with numerous banks and insurance companies all owned by African-Americans in a way that wasn’t happening elsewhere.

When my wife and I first moved here, it was kind of a blown out town; it was cheap, there were a lot of boarded up windows, and mostly artists and freaks lived here. And when your basis for community is a bunch of artists, you’re going to inject some life into the scene.

RLR: It also seems like, from afar, the music and artist community in North Carolina has been really important following passage of HB2. [You can pick up a sweet FU HB2 shirt in Phil’s store.] Can you talk about this sense of not only having a creative community, but a political one as well?

PC: If there’s an injustice affecting people that you genuinely love, it puts you into it. These are crazy times and call for you to rise to the occasion to take a stand and say what you believe. [Laughs] I’m a libra, I do not like conflict…but I do have opinions, I know what’s right and wrong, and I’m not alone. It’s pretty obvious when looking at history who was on the right side. I want my kids to see me on the right side of history.

RLR: You have said before that working on the Blind Boys of Alabama record gave you a certain permission or entry point for what would become your album Southland Mission. Can you talk about your relationship with the Blind Boys?

PC: I was able to be the band leader on that record, so I helped select the tunes and give direction and work with all the singers. Because of where I grew up, I didn’t have other people around that loved the music I love, so I was pretty alone in adolescence. Kids in my town, you know, listened to stuff like Pantera–it was a small town, so it was either metal or country. The Chicago blues was the door I walked in and became the focal point for me. It felt like the real story of America — soul music, the blues, the black experience in America, and how the music reflected so much complicated darkness and put out so much light in the world.

On the Blind Boys record, it was the first time making music with people I grew up listening to, making music with my heroes. I wondered: how am I going to measure up? And that held an important discovery: I love this music, I have a deep love and respect for the traditions and where they come from; so my knowledge and approach were met with open arms because we had a quest and a goal to make a great record.

And so I thought why would I not make whatever music is happening in my head? But I’d been telling myself “no”. I kept saying, “who am I?” to make this kind of music. I love contemplating my own insignificance on a daily basis anyway. I’ve kind of conditioned my brain to say “who am I?” to do anything. But, you know, I’ve got a life to live here and there’s things that have to happen – I have to raise my family, have to be a good husband, and I would like to give people a sense of joy and community that music has brought me my whole life.

I can’t wait to have the Blind Boys at Newport, and for other people to feel the power of what they do on a daily basis. They bring their faith and a passion and energy to performance that so many people have no touchstone for. It puts you in your place, to see somebody own it that hard, and it shows you what it looks like to give everything you have to a single note.

 

 

RLR: I basically decided to go to Newport last year once I saw Hiss Golden Messenger on the bill. And your set was incredible, so full of communication and energy between you all as a band and what makes me think of it is your comments on joy in performance.

PC: My friends and I come from a place where we’re so grateful because the main thing music has brought us is this brotherhood. That’s the currency – I don’t have financial answers but I will always know family is more important than money. Anyone that has a family knows that–and a family could be a good friend or a neighborhood or one other person. But some people don’t have it and they deserve to feel like they’re home somewhere.

I’m very lucky and I hope people feel that. My band, the Guitarheels, are such an unlikely crew; we look like Durham. They each have their own vibe and the main thing I want them to do is bring themselves, to be In service of the song.

RLR: I heard that after Newport last year, you and the rest of HGM went to Big Pink.

Oh man, it was one of the heaviest nights. That late night campfire singalong til the wee hours: truly in that moment, I could have let it all go.

Download music and see a fantastic video about the making of Southland Mission at Phil Cook’s website here. He’s playing at the Fort as well as an after show with Spirit Family Reunion on Saturday.

Photo Credit: Nick Helderman / courtesy of the artist.