About That Song: Scott Cook
About That Song #8
In our special series, singer-songwriter Sarah Morris interviews artists about the songs that shaped them.
Hi! I’m Sarah Morris. I’m wildly in love with songs and the people who write them. There have been a few songs in my life that have been total gamechangers—songs that made me want to be a songwriter and songs I’ve written that made me feel like I am a songwriter. About That Song is a space where I can learn more about those pivotal songs in other writers’ lives.
Today’s guest is Scott Cook, a folk singer-songwriter from Alberta, Canada. I was excited to ask him about formative songs in his life before we share the stage at Storyhill Fest, an intimate, songwriting-focused music festival in Deerwood MN, this August 25-27.
Scott Cook. Photo credit: Steven Teeuwsen.
Sarah: Hi Scott!! It’s so good to get a chance to talk with you. I think it’s been five years since we met at Kerrville Folk Festival. I heard you sing a song there—“While The Party’s Still Going”—that’s stuck with me in such a big way all this time, so thanks for agreeing to talk songwriting with me! Do you remember the song that you heard that made you want to be a songwriter? Tell us about that song.
Scott: I wish I could say exactly which song started me off, but I’ll have to settle for a bunch of tributaries that led me to the river I’m currently following. A Beastie Boys cassette that another kid brought to my class in fifth grade was my first exposure to hip-hop, and I started writing my own raps shortly thereafter. Having been told that I was tone-deaf when I was younger and mistaking that for a medical diagnosis, hip-hop felt available for a kid who thought he couldn’t sing.
In my adolescent years I remember listening to the Eagles, Jackson Browne and the like on the one radio station we got in our small Northern BC town, and starting to get a feel for the romance of the road. In Grade 10 I saw the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video on TV and it opened the door into the whole world of punk rock. I joined a band with my classmates, playing bass because the other guys were better guitar players than me, and we started doing gigs in the all-ages dives around Edmonton. At the same time I was digging through records in garage sales, and got turned on to Leonard Cohen, John Sebastian, Jimmie Rodgers and, most importantly for me, Bob Dylan.
During my university years I got more into playing acoustic music, jamming with a high-school buddy of mine, and writing songs of our own, but still very much under the spell of those early influences. The songwriter that really helped me find my own voice was Greg Brown. Here was someone singing in a voice close enough to my own—both in terms of range and in terms of sentiment—that it freed me to feel like I could actually tell my own story.
Sarah: Oh, yes—all the tributaries leading you to your river. What a lovely way to picture all the places we come from and journey through. Once you began writing, did you feel like a writer immediately? It took me a few years of writing before I believed it—was there a song that gave you that “a-HA! I AM a songwriter!” moment? Tell us about that song.
Scott: In 2005 I quit my job teaching kindergarten in Taiwan, moved into a minivan and went on the road full-time in North America. I made it all the way to the East Coast, maxed out my credit cards and went back to Taiwan to save up some money and try again.
While I was there I recorded my first album, Long Way to Wander, in a buddy’s apartment, so when I came back in 2007 I actually had something to sell and give to people. I still felt like an impostor, playing gigs in bars and cafes where people mostly ignored me, wondering whether any of it was worth doing. I watched other artists like Geoff Berner, Carolyn Mark, Wendy McNeill, Kris Demeanor, Rae Spoon and Raghu Lokanathan, and wished I could do what they were doing.
Later that summer I happened upon Corin Raymond at a festival in Ontario and was completely blown away by his way of speaking directly to the audience, looking them right in the eyes, and delivering every word with care and conviction. I awkwardly gave him a CD at the end of the fest, and a month or so later as I was driving homeward, out of luck and again out of credit, I got an email from him. He’d been touring in the States with Jonathan Byrd; they put on the CD and both agreed that there was something worth paying attention to in it. That was really the first convincing inkling I had that I might be onto something.
Years later, probably 2011 or so, I was back in Taiwan, staying in a little beach town called Fulong for a month off stage and off the booze after a difficult breakup. I wrote three songs that month and felt like one of them, “Pass It Along,” might be just the song to enter into the Calgary Folk Fest’s songwriting contest. The finalists would all be invited to sing their songs over an afternoon at a bar in Calgary, and the winner would get to play their song on the main stage at the festival.
As it turned out, I didn’t even place. But that song has gone on to have a life of its own that I never imagined. A few other small-timers have covered it on their albums. It’s included in the online catalog of Rise Up Singing. A songwriter named Bob Bossin made an Earth Day video of it with Peggy Seeger, Leon Rosselson, Pharis Romero and a whole bunch more singers I really admire. It’s even become the finale song of the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival. To me, that feels like a song going to heaven. It’s not even mine anymore.
Sarah: What a gift to release your song to the wild in that way! You spend a considerable amount of time on the road, and lucky for us—some of that time is spent around the Midwest! Where can we hear you sing that song (or any other song for that matter) in the near future?
Scott: These last couple years I’ve been touring in a bigger van with my partner Pamela Mae along singing and playing upright bass. We’ll be through Deerwood, MN for Storyhill Fest August 25th-27th and again for a barn show in Maple Plain October 14th. Interested folks can see all my dates on scottcook.net.
Pamela Mae and Scott Cook. Photo credit: Rosemary Spurll.
Sarah: One last question—I’m curious about your current songwriting escapades. What’s the last song that you wrote that gave you that A-HA moment all over again? Any chance that you might be embarking on recording it?
Scott: During the early days of the pandemic—the first time I’d slowed down in ages—it occurred to me that of all the stuff I need to do for my job, writing songs was always getting pushed to the bottom of the pile. And while I’m pretty sure I won’t feel any deathbed regrets over unmade social media posts, unwritten songs really do feel kinda tragic.
So about two years ago I started up a Patreon, a simple thing with just one pay-what-you-can tier and 150-some souls on board, where I write and release a new song every month. If I don’t have a new song by the end of the month, I pause the payment. Putting a financial incentive on it—not to mention just not wanting to let these people down—has tripled my usual output, and I think a lot of them are keepers.
The latest one’s called “From Here on the Curve,” a song about moral progress inspired by our visit to the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Dr. King was shot. I imagine it’ll be among the songs we sing at Storyhill Fest, and among the songs we record when we get back into the studio this fall to start work on a new album and accompanying book to be released in the fall of 2024.
Sarah: Well, I can’t wait to hear it, then! Here’s to fewer unwritten songs, Scott! Thank you for taking a little time with us today. See you at Storyhill Fest!
Listen to “Pass It Along”
Sarah Morris. Photo credit: Tom Smouse.
Sarah Morris is a superfan of songs and the people who write them, and a believer that certain songs can change your life. A singer-songwriter / mama / bread maker / coffee drinker who recently released her fifth album of original material, she’s been known to joyfully sing with people in her Big Green Bathroom.
