What did manufacturer Dave Cobb do when Nashville closed its doors this year?
“I’ve lost my mind, ” said Cobb, “I’m someone who never likes a day off, I don’t like it. I’m having a hard time disconnecting, I love going to the studio. I love being creative. I almost lost. “
Productivity, the main enemy of 2020, would not be suppressed for long. Cobb returned to its main port, the historic RCA Studio A on Music Row, and resumed recording safely.
“We have evidence at the start of the session, both when a new user enters the room,” Cobb said.
Cobb’s “don’t take a day off” shone in 2020 with a multitude of outings, most of them followed before the pandemic, which earned him a Grammy nomination as Producer of the Year.
The 63rd Grammy Awards will be held on January 31.
Read on to note the highlights of an interview with Cobb about his Grammy-nominated work, how to stay positive for the fitness crisis, and a star rating starting in 2021.
Cobb earned his manufacturer’s nomination for many years for releases such as “Reunions”, a 2020 album through composer Jason Isbell, and “The Balladeer”, the most recent collection of well-known country word drill Lori McKenna.
He followed the debut album of a country supergroup, The Highwomen, with Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby.
“It is more than an honor to paint with them, ” he said, adding: “. . . it’s not just [The Highwomen] Array . . . Yola in the band. Sheryl Crow there, appearing – betting bass, betting piano, singing, Jason Isbell there, playing guitar, the twins [Phil and Tim Hanseroth] of Brandi’s band were there.
“It was simply this wonderful network album. It’s much bigger than just the group. It was probably anyone looking to join and the cause. I think it was a wonderful feeling.
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Cobb produced the latest recording by beloved composer John Prine, “I Remember Everything”. Prine Oh Boy Records released the song in June, weeks after her death from COVID-19 complications. “I everything” won two nominations at the upcoming Grammy Awards.
He captured it at Prine’s.
“I didn’t mean to be your last song, by any means,” Cobb said. “We booked in July to make a new album. He was writing. You may see the glow in his eyes. John was 15. “a year for me, writing his first song. He had that glow. I was so inspired.
“I left that night without thinking of anything [like] that would be the last time I would paint with John. It breaks my center that this is the last time, because there’s no way it’s over.
In the study, Cobb said he seeks “literally [not] to do the same thing twice. “
It helps when you paint with “other people much smarter than you,” says Carlile, Isbell or long-time collaborator Chris Stapleton, who brought Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench to the studio for their new album, “Starting Over”.
“I don’t think I’ve ever come to something like” Oh, man. I sense it now, ” said Cobb. I come back here and check to perceive.
This year he’s stayed focused.
More: The state of music in 2020? It’s not great, but Nashville is at the forefront.
“When you’re in the moment and you believe, you’re the global for a second,” he said. “In fact, I’m lucky to be here at Studio A. On all 4 walls, I don’t know what it looks like out there. . . . Sometimes you and it’s like before, when the music is good. “
Next year he will start with a star of Barry Gibb, the star of the Bee Gees. The 74-year-old composer asked Cobb to produce an album of reinvented songs with a country twist.
Called “Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1”, songs recorded through Gibb reworked along with Isbell, Carlile, Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert, Alison Krauss, Keith Urban and many others.
What is the first day of recording? Parton and Gibb, doing a song in combination in a room.
“Or they’re four feet away from me and I’m playing with the guitar and I’m starting to walk where my guitar and legs start shaking,” Cobb said. “Just terrifying. Not only are they legends, icons – Dolly has a theme park and Barry is a gentleman. That’s a lot to go. “
“Greenfields” falls on January 8, 2021.