Mike Cooley (musician)
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Mike Cooley | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Tuscumbia, Alabama |
Genres | Rock Soul Alternative country |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter guitarist |
Instruments | Vocals guitar |
Years active | 1985–present |
Labels | ATO Records |
Associated acts | Drive-By Truckers Jason Isbell Shonna Tucker |
John Michael Cooley (born September 14, 1966) is an American songwriter, singer, and guitarist from Tuscumbia, Alabama, near Muscle Shoals.[1] He is a member of the band Drive-By Truckers.
Background[]
Cooley received his first guitar at age 8, spending time with a local bluegrass musician to pick up the instrument.[2] In 1985, he formed the punk-influenced band Adam's House Cat with Patterson Hood. The band was chosen as a top ten Best Unsigned Band by a Musician contest in the late 1980s. After the end of Adam's House Cat, Cooley and Hood performed as a duo under the name "Virgil Kane." While living in Auburn, Alabama they started a new band, "Horsepussy," before splitting for a few years. It was during this split that Hood moved to Athens, Georgia and began forming what would become Drive-By Truckers with the intent of luring Cooley back into the fold.[3]
With the Drive-by Truckers[]
Hood and Cooley formed Drive-By Truckers in 1996. Cooley contributed one song to their debut record Gangstabilly and three songs to the follow-up, Pizza Deliverance. Cooley wrote five songs for the breakout double album Southern Rock Opera, which received a four star rating from Rolling Stone Magazine.[4] Cooley added four songs to the Truckers' next two records Decoration Day and The Dirty South, including his signature song "Carl Perkins' Cadillac". He wrote two songs for the follow-up A Blessing and a Curse and seven for Brighter Than Creation's Dark. He has written three songs for each of the Truckers' records Go-Go Boots and The Big To Do and six songs for their 2014 release English Oceans.
Solo career[]
In 2013, Cooley released his first solo effort The Fool on Every Corner, a live album recorded at Atlanta's The EARL.
Cooley and Hood occasionally perform as an acoustic duo under the moniker, Dimmer Twins.[5]
On May 22, 2021, he performed at a benefit concert in Brookwood, Alabama in support of striking workers during the 2021 Warrior Met Coal strike.[6]
Cooley lives in Hoover, Alabama with his wife and children.[7]
Drive-By Truckers contributions[]
Year | Album | Song |
---|---|---|
2020 | The New OK | "Sarah's Flame" |
2020 | The Unraveling | "Slow Ride Argument" |
"Grievance Merchants" | ||
2016 | American Band | "Ramon Casiano" |
"Surrender Under Protest" | ||
"Filthy and Fried" | ||
"Kinky Hypocrite" | ||
"Once They Banned Imagine" | ||
2014 | English Oceans | "Shit Shots Count" |
"Primer Coat" | ||
"Made Up English Oceans" | ||
"Hearing Jimmy Loud" | ||
"Natural Light" | ||
"First Air of Autumn" | ||
2011 | Go-Go Boots | "Cartoon Gold" |
"The Weakest Man" | ||
"Pulaski" | ||
2010 | The Big To Do | "Birthday Boy" |
"Get Downtown" | ||
"Eyes Like Glue" | ||
2008 | Brighter Than Creation's Dark | "3 Dimes Down" |
"Perfect Timing" | ||
"Self Destructive Zones" | ||
"Bob" | ||
"Lisa's Birthday" | ||
"Checkout Time in Vegas" | ||
"A Ghost to Most" | ||
2006 | A Blessing and a Curse | "Gravity's Gone" |
"Space City" | ||
2004 | The Dirty South | "Where the Devil Don't Stay" |
"Carl Perkins' Cadillac" | ||
"Cottonseed" | ||
"Daddy's Cup" | ||
2003 | Decoration Day | "Marry Me" |
"Sounds Better in the Song" | ||
"When the Pin Hits the Shell" | ||
"Loaded Gun in the Closet" | ||
2001 | Southern Rock Opera | "72 (This Highway's Mean)" |
"Guitar Man Upstairs" | ||
"Zip City" | ||
"Women Without Whiskey" | ||
"Shut Up and Get on the Plane" | ||
2001 | Pizza Deliverance | "Uncle Frank" |
"One of These Days" | ||
"Love Like This" | ||
1998 | Gangstabilly | "Panties in Your Purse" |
Discography[]
- Live Albums
- The Fool on Every Corner (2013)
Sources[]
- ^ AL.com blog
- ^ "12 Questions with Mike Cooley". Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved November 21, 2013.
- ^ News
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20080222171129/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/thedrivebytruckers/albums/album/195461/review/5945922/southern_rock_opera
- ^ https://www.highroadtouring.com/artists/dimmer-twins/
- ^ Kelly, Kim (May 19, 2021). "'Alabama Strike Fest' Planned to Help Striking Coal Miners". Rolling Stone. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
- ^ https://www.al.com/entertainment/2011/12/personal_challenge_mike_cooley.html
External links[]
- American rock guitarists
- American male guitarists
- American singer-songwriters
- American rock singers
- American rock songwriters
- American male singer-songwriters
- Singers from Alabama
- People from Tuscumbia, Alabama
- Songwriters from Alabama
- Living people
- 1966 births
- Drive-By Truckers members
- Guitarists from Alabama
- 20th-century American guitarists
- 20th-century American male musicians