Master Sessions

Peter Cooper

 

Peter Cooper is an East Nashville-based singer, songwriter, touring artist, sideman, producer, college professor, and award-winning journalist.  His first solo album, Mission Door, released in 2008 received critical acclaim as have his two albums with duo partner Eric Brace and his most recent solo project, The Lloyd Green Album.  He is a Grammy-nominated producer for the acclaimed 2011 release I Love: Tom T. Hall's Songs of Fox Hollow.

Upon the completion of Peter Cooper’s debut album, Mission Door, American Songwriter magazine proclaimed it “Cooper’s diploma from the Tom T. Hall School of Damn Good Songwriting.” Cooper's second solo album was The Lloyd Green Album, another step in his on-going collaboration with the pedal steel Hall of Famer.  He has also released two duo works with Eric Brace, You Don't Have to Like Them Both and Master Sessions (with Lloyd Green and Mike Auldridge).  Cooper's work has won praise from each of his chief influences: Hall, John Prine, Todd Snider, Eric Taylor, and Kris Kristofferson. The latter said, “Peter Cooper looks at the world with an artist’s eye and a human heart and soul. His songs are the work of an original, creative imagination, alive with humor and heartbreak and irony and intelligence, with truth and beauty in the details. Deep stuff. And they get better every time you listen.”

Named one of Nashville’s “10 Most Interesting People” by Nashville Arts & Entertainment magazine, Cooper is also a session player, a producer who has worked with Snider, Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, Fayssoux Starling McLean, and others, a professor of country music at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, and a senior music writer at Nashville’s daily paper, The Tennessean. 

Master Sessions

Master Sessions

Musicians:
Mike Auldridge: Dobro
Richard Bennett: Guitars, octave mandolin
Eric Brace: Acoustic guitar, vocals
Peter Cooper: Acoustic guitar, vocals
Lloyd Green: Pedal steel guitar
Jen Gunderman: Keyboards, accordion
Pat McInerney: Drums, percussion
Dave Roe: Bass
With:
Jon Randall: Harmony vocals (2, 5, 11)
Julie Lee: Harmony vocals (4, 7, 8, 11)
Kenny Chesney: Harmony vocals (1)
 
Recorded by Adam Bednarik at House of David Studios (Nashville) and Mike Esser at 16 Ton Studios (Nashville)
Mixed by Richard McLaurin at House of David Studios
Mastered by Alex McCollough at Yes Master (Nashville)
Photography by Jim McGuire (Nashville)
CD design by Bill Thompson (Harrisonburg, VA)
Produced by Eric Brace and Peter Cooper
 

4. Missoula Tonight

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Lyrics

(by Eric Brace & Peter Cooper) ---- When Eric saw a Montana forest fire up close, it stuck in his head. Fire. Wind. Water. Powerful stuff, especially for those in the way.

Fire on the mountain, smoke in my eyes
Look up and see the red flames in the black night
We prayed for a hard rain
What else can we do?
The fire breaks are cut and the fighters home
 
Come closer darling there's ash in your hair
A tear in your eye
This time tomorrow we could be anywhere
Missoula tonight if we tried
 
We watched them fly over
In modified planes
Dumping the water again and again
Time now for leaving
What will you take

We won't need very much, we shouldn't wait



Come closer darling there's ash in your hair
Tears in your eyes
This time tomorrow we could be anywhere
Missoula tonight if we tried
 
Your brother's a brave one
Flying like that
There's a man with no fear
I think that I saw him waving his hat
Pointing to get out of here
 
Come closer darling there's ash in your hair
Come closer don't cry
This time tomorrow we could be anywhere
Missoula tonight if we tried

Missoula tonight if we tried

6. Circus

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Lyrics
(by Eric Brace & Peter Cooper) ---- It’s hard to be a clown, and harder not to be one. Good thing kids love ‘em. Lyrics aside, here’s a simple, finger-picked pattern that Lloyd and Mike weave into something far beyond what Eric and Peter could have imagined. Come to think of it, that applies to this whole record.
Here comes the circus back to town
I've got a kid he loves a clown
When I was his age I did too
Now I don't, what can you do
 
He doesn't worry 'bout the lions
Tigers and bears they are his friends
I'm stuck with fearful agitation
And disbelief I can't suspend
 
We won't be going to the circus
I can't imagine why we would
There's a brand new sucker born every minute
You can spin it most every way but
 
Would you bring back something
From the circus
Some kind of little souvenir
He'll think much better of the circus
Imagining the thing from here
 
Here comes the circus back to town
I've got a kid he loves a clown
When I was his age I did too
Grew up to be one, whoop-di-do
Peter Cooper

 

Peter Cooper is an East Nashville-based singer, songwriter, touring artist, sideman, producer, college professor, and award-winning journalist.  His first solo album, Mission Door, released in 2008 received critical acclaim as have his two albums with duo partner Eric Brace and his most recent solo project, The Lloyd Green Album.  He is a Grammy-nominated producer for the acclaimed 2011 release I Love: Tom T. Hall's Songs of Fox Hollow.

Upon the completion of Peter Cooper’s debut album, Mission Door, American Songwriter magazine proclaimed it “Cooper’s diploma from the Tom T. Hall School of Damn Good Songwriting.” Cooper's second solo album was The Lloyd Green Album, another step in his on-going collaboration with the pedal steel Hall of Famer.  He has also released two duo works with Eric Brace, You Don't Have to Like Them Both and Master Sessions (with Lloyd Green and Mike Auldridge).  Cooper's work has won praise from each of his chief influences: Hall, John Prine, Todd Snider, Eric Taylor, and Kris Kristofferson. The latter said, “Peter Cooper looks at the world with an artist’s eye and a human heart and soul. His songs are the work of an original, creative imagination, alive with humor and heartbreak and irony and intelligence, with truth and beauty in the details. Deep stuff. And they get better every time you listen.”

Named one of Nashville’s “10 Most Interesting People” by Nashville Arts & Entertainment magazine, Cooper is also a session player, a producer who has worked with Snider, Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, Fayssoux Starling McLean, and others, a professor of country music at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, and a senior music writer at Nashville’s daily paper, The Tennessean. 

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