Drew Cooper

Anyone who has witnessed a performance from Drew Cooper can testify to that sentiment, to experiencing a stirring of the soul kind of sensation as the music washes over. The husky, soul soaked baritone of his voice is no doubt the very foundation his entire sound is built on. It’s a well-worn timbre that in one moment haunts you with the Teddy Pendergrass-esque stylings of old Motown, and the next moment you’re bobbing your head up and down in that involuntary way that only pure rock n roll can invoke. That rock spice is always going to be part of the meal with Cooper having grown up in the Midwest where classic rock dictated pretty music everything, but you are also going to taste a hint of country and, sometimes, the gospel influence of his youth. It’s hard to know what to call this hodge-podge stew of savory sounds, but Cooper serves it up this way. “Americana is the easiest way to explain it, but that’s a blanket statement for those that have their own sound. Am I rock? No. Am I country? No. I just sing it and play it how I feel it.”

This “what you see is what you get” demeanor made Cooper a quickly adopted brother in the Texas Red Dirt music scene where your songwriting goods is your only true currency. “Those Texas guys, those are real stories they are telling. Mainstream music writes to the masses. Those guys just write their lives. It’s all about the song and the camaraderie, a kind of potluck mentality. It’s not what you take from the table, it what you bring.” Cooper is a shot directly in that same vein. His own street cred in Arizona as a genuine songwriter laid a fast track into Texas where he is honored to spend half his time living, writing and performing among his tale-spinning brethren. His songs talk about every damn thing what with him having a very colorful life story to draw from. Becoming a father at the age of 23, losing faith with his family about his unstable future and spending years with his nose to the grindstone proving himself a reliable human being, the dues paid when gambling on his dreams, the victories of succeeding, the Pr*son of addiction, the broken pieces of divorce, the dawning of new love, the growth of a family, the loneliness of life on the road and precious moments missed. It’s all there and Cooper is perfectly comfortable telling you all about it if you ask him. He’ll also tell you that he sees the body of his music catalog as positive despite years of very difficult times because, for him, writing songs with 20/20 hindsight allows him none of the initial shock of pain and all of the wisdom. “You don’t have to be unhappy to write good music, you only have to be honest.”

When Cooper released his acclaimed 2018 album “White Horse,” it was crystal clear that he had reached new levels as a songwriter. Word about him continued to spread within the artist circles and new allies seem to emerge out of thin air. On one such night, a woman by the name of Amy Worthen who had been coming to shows and buying CD’s introduced him to her husband Bryan who turned out to be front of the house engineer for the Foo Fighters. After some getting to know time, Worthen invited Cooper to come and record at Studio 606 in Los Angeles, the Foo Fighters’ home studio. This was the only time Worthen invited anyone to the studio and that honor was not lost on Cooper who was feeling a bit of the jitters. “I had this urgent need not to suck.” In the 2 years since his last release Cooper had accumulated so much new material that at Worthen’s invitation he stepped inside Studio 606 to record his new double album “This Life” slated for release on April 8th, 2022.

The album is produced by John Lousteau, the chief engineer at Studio 606 who has worked with some jaw dropping names in the music world. The two hit it off immediately becoming fast friends, and made excellent recording partners with lots of laughter mixed with brutal honesty when the tape began to roll. “This Life” is a bold statement of accountability, the title-track in particular that depicts the metamorphosis of Cooper from the age of 19 to present day. But it’s not only Cooper’s confessions and acceptance of accountability that show through here, in some cases he’s holding a mirror up to the face of the world asking for the same set of standards he holds himself to. It’s honest, real life situations, sometimes hard, sometimes soft, that come to life through a mighty heart and an equally strapping voice that commands attention. “I think this is the realest thing I have ever written…and I still have a lot of stories to tell. “

Event Venue

Saxon Pub 2023, 1320 S Lamar, Austin, United States