NOTE: The Grammy Award winner will be at the Murphy Theatre in Wilmington on Friday, June 10 at 7:30 p.m. for “An Evening with Marc Cohn.”
After winning a Grammy for his soulful ballad “Walking in Memphis,” Cleveland-born Marc Cohn solidified his place as one of our times’ most compelling singer-songwriters, combining the precision of a brilliant tunesmith with the passion of a great soul man.
Rooted in the rich ground of American rhythm and blues, soul and gospel and possessed of a deft storyteller’s pen, he weaves vivid, detailed, often drawn-from-life tales that evoke some of our most universal human feelings: love, hope, faith, joy, heartbreak.
Cohn followed up his platinum-selling debut with two more releases in the 1990s, at which point Time magazine called him “one of the honest, emotional voices we need in this decade” and Bonnie Raitt declared, “Marc is one of the most soulful, talented artists I know. I love his songs, he’s an incredible singer, and I marvel at his ability to mesmerize every audience he plays for.”
Raitt, James Taylor, David Crosby, Graham Nash and Patty Griffin all made guest appearances on Cohn’s early records for Atlantic as his reputation as an artist and performer continued to grow. In 1998, Cohn took a decade-long sabbatical from recording, ending in 2007 with Join the Parade.
Inspired by the horrific events following Hurricane Katrina and his own near fatal shooting by a would-be carjacker in 2005 just weeks before, Parade is his most moving and critically acclaimed record to date.
About his album Listening Booth: 1970, a collection of re-imagined classics from that seminal year in music, Rolling Stone said, “Cohn has one of rock’s most soulful croons — a rich, immediately recognizable tenor that makes these songs his own.”
In late 2014, Cohn released “The Coldest Corner in the World,” the title song to the documentary Tree Man and his first original song released in more than seven years.
Marc’s momentum continued into a busy and fruitful 2017, which he spent in part on the road with the legendary Michael McDonald, garnering critical acclaim across the United States.
His writing talent was also drafted for work with a roster of American music greats including soul survivor William Bell, who won his first Grammy at age 78 with Marc’s help; Marc co-wrote a solid half of Bell’s celebrated album This is Where I Live, including the passionate opening cut “The Three Of Me.” The album revived the sound of Stax soul’s golden age, when Bell had first cut his teeth as an artist, and which had influenced Marc Cohn so powerfully — in its way, completing a circle and letting Marc give back to one of the originators of the sound that shaped him.
Marc revisited another corner of American music’s rich heritage with the Blind Boys of Alabama on the Grammy-nominated song “Let My Mother Live,” and also worked with David Crosby on the album Lighthouse. As powerfully influenced by the singer-songwriter tradition as he is by the legacy of soul and gospel, working with the ’60s icon was a project that got right to Marc’s creative core.
In 2019, Marc released a collaborative record with gospel legends Blind Boys of Alabama titled Work To Do. Work to Do is comprised of three studio tracks by Cohn and the Blind Boys (two originals, including the title track, and a version of the gospel standard “Walk In Jerusalem”) plus seven intimate live performances recorded at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, during a taping of the PBS series The Kate.
Moving forward, Marc continues to do what he does best: infuse American music with both a fresh perspective and a reverence for its deep roots.
For tickets, The Murphy Theatre’s phone number is 937-382-3643, or visit themurphytheatre.org .
