Marc Cohn Keeps It Fresh

“It’s one of my favorite places to play,” Marc Cohn replied when asked about his upcoming shows at The Coach House. “It’s been around awhile, and a lot of people have said maybe it could use a little touch-up paint here and there (chuckles).

“They’re great audiences and it’s just a great room to play. I must have played it a dozen times by now. It’s always one of my favorite shows to play each year.”

An annual favorite, Grammy winner Cohn spoke with Concert Guide Live about all sorts of things such as his childhood dreams, his first guitar, life’s early challenges as well as playing “Walking In Memphis” thousands of times, future plans with Blind Boys of Alabama, and of course, how it feels like a hometown gig when he plays at The Coach House.

CONCERT GUIDE LIVE: How many of the fans do you recognize at this point?
MARC COHN: There are some I definitely recognize, it’s sort of become a family thing and I have good family friends that live near by so they’re always there in the audience. So, it does feel almost like a hometown show to me.

CGL: Do you remember the first time you played there?
MC: I remember parts of my whole life just by remembering who was there at a particular time, which of my ex-wives was there, which of my kids was in attendance. My whole life has unfolded year by year at The Coach House.

CGL: Is it weird having everyone sitting down, possibly still eating?
MC: I don’t remember that as strange. In fact, I didn’t even fully process it was a dinner place until I played there several times. Dinner is usually long over by the time I hit the stage, so it isn’t like one of those dinner theaters where it feels intrusive.

CGL: What’s the lineup – do you play with a full band?
MC: It’s always different. This time it’s a full band but not a “conventional” full band. I have a percussionist, an amazing Hammond B3 player, I play guitar and piano. And my opening act at The Coach House is a great new artist that I’m really happy to give a platform to, she’s actually from Southern California, her name is Chelsea Williams, and she also sings and plays with me in my set and so does her harmonica player who is an extraordinary musician.

I’m always looking for ways to sort of change the show especially at a place like The Coach House where, you know, year after year you don’t want to be doing the same exact show.

CGL: Do you have a preferred guitar that you like to play?
MC: I have an old Gibson J45 a miraculous old thing from the 60’s and it’s only miraculous because I found it left-handed. I’m a left-handed guitar player and I can never find vintage guitars from back then. And this one I found years ago in Chelsea in New York City and it’s been my favorite road guitar and writing guitar for years, now.

CGL: Do you remember where and when you got your first guitar?
MC: My first one my step-mother bought me in Cleveland, Ohio, I don’t remember what kind it was, but it barely stayed in tune, so it wasn’t long until my brother got me an Ovation when I was 17. But my main instrument is piano so this guitar thing, even though it was my first instrument, I’m not all that plugged into.

CGL: Do you ever get tired of playing “Walking In Memphis”? How do you keep it fresh?
MC: From time to time. But considering I’ve played it thousands of times by now, I surprisingly have been able to keep it fresh. Occasionally I change the arrangement a little bit but not too much and of course like what we were talking about, when the lineup of the band is different that changes the song, too.

I guess the main ingredient in keeping it fresh is every night it’s a different audience. And they have a particular mood and feel and vibe and participation level so it’s really the crowd that keeps it new.

And the fact that I can still connect to what that song is about which is largely about the power of music.

CGL: What were some of your early musical inspirations?
MC: There’s just dozens. Everybody from Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Beatles, Stones, The Band, all the great singer-songwriters that sort of put a light on my path that I ended up doing so James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, the list goes on and on.

I was my most impressionable when some of the greatest music ever made was new. And so, I just willed myself to try and do what my idols were doing, cuz it moved me so much. A lot of that music, I just wanted to learn how to do it. I’ve ended up my whole life still figuring it out.

CGL: Was there a specific moment when you realized you wanted to do music?
MC: By the time I was 12-13 I had a singing voice. I had kind of a difficult childhood. My mom died when I was 2 my dad died when I was 12 so I had a need to express myself and to try and self-sooth, get through my losses which was quite early and unexpected and traumatizing. And I think it was between the fact that I could sing and the fact that I had something I needed to say (chuckles) just for myself that was the beginning of realizing that’s what I wanted to do.

Knowing that I’d be able to do it was a whole other thing but by the time I was 17 or 18 I was committed to trying. To at least trying to make it into a career.

CGL: What was it like to release your first album and then win a Grammy for Best New Artist?
MC: It was a dream come true. My biggest dream come true. I had been dreaming about all the aspects of being a recording artist ever since I was that 12-year-old kid.

I was already well aware of which record labels had the artists I liked so I wanted to be on either Warner Bros or Elektra or Asylum or Atlantic where I did end up. I was aware of the players that were given credits on the records that I loved. So being able to just get a record deal, number one, was my first dream come true.

And being able to play with some of my heroes – James Taylor is on my first record, drummer Steve Gadd who played with Paul Simon for years is on my first record, so that was a dream come true. All of a sudden, I was kind of in that world.

And then the biggest dream come true was that I made a record I loved. I really worked hard on that record and I tried really hard to keep it authentic and not try to make it sound like it was a current record but more of a timeless one. Luckily Atlantic let me do that.

And then the fact that it resonated with people, that was just beyond description. The Grammy was great, too. It was all of those things combined that were things I’d been dreaming about since I was a kid.

CGL: What do you like to do when you’re not touring or recording?
MC: I’m a father of four kids starting ages 12 all the way to 28. They all live where I live, in New York, and the time I spend off the road is time I need to have with my kids.

CGL: If you could be anyone other than yourself for a day, living or deceased, who would it be and why?
MC: If I could be someone else?
CGL: Yes, just for a day.
MC: Oh my gosh. That’s tough. That’s really tough… Hmm… I’d like to be my therapist and find out what he really thinks of me.
CGL: Are you sure about that?
MC: Well, it would be interesting. It would be a day well spent. Actually, I love my therapist so I would be happy to just spend some time with him and not really talking. And I’d also like to ask him more questions, so that’s one thing, cuz he’s actually been a lifesaver over the years.

Who else would I want to be? It would be amazing to be one of my heroes, I suppose, but see my thing is I would just want to spend time with them as them. I wouldn’t want to be them.

I think that’s the best I can come up with. That’s a wild question.

CGL: Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?
MC: I’ve been hard working on some new songs that I will be playing at The Coach House shows.

I will be doing a whole tour with the Blind Boys of Alabama, they’ve been singing with me a couple of years now and we’re playing with Taj Mahal. So that’s gonna be thrilling.

I’m going to be finished in a couple of months with an EP or a full-length CD I’m making with the Blind Boys. I have three new studio tracks and a bunch of live tracks that we’re gonna put out in June. That’s about all for now.