Paul Cogley

Paul Cogley

About Paul Cogley

Paul Cogley’s songs tell stories that can linger with you a long time. Often they deal with restlessness and loss. Yet Cogley’s songs have an upbeat feeling. At their core they are about hope, combined, perhaps, with a dash of patience. In fact, Cogley’s unlikely journey to American Hill, his debut album, has something to say about being patient for your moment to arrive. Originally from New York, for many years Paul Cogley lived in Nevada City, California where he worked as a firefighter, heavy equipment operator, freelance comic book critic for the SF Chronicle, and, eventually, the town’s city planner. An admirer of the great songwriters—“the heavy hitters who span the decades”—he covered favorite songs and honed his skills at open mics in bars and clubs. Returning to New York City in the early 2000s to take a new job and begin a new marriage, he put away the guitar and took a hiatus from music. However, music wasn’t gone from his life, just lying low. “One day I picked up my old Martin and out came a whole new song,” he said. “It rambled a bit but grabbing it out of the air and getting it down meant a lot. Music always seems to help me in my struggle to define myself.” Cogley wrote a batch of tunes and, looking beyond his customary horizons, took aim to record them. In time, a band was put together for a recording project. Cogley’s vocals—compelling, candid, and distinctive—were rolled together with renowned guitarist Steve Elliot, bassist Tim Luntzel, who extensively backs Rosanne Cash, drummer Tony Leone, a protégé of the late Levon Helm and member of Ollabelle; and keyboardist JC Hopkins, who also produced the sessions. The result was a sound not heard much anymore, captured on the reel-to-reel console at The Maids Room Studio in the Lower East Side. The tapes were mastered at the world famous Avatar Studios. Keeping pace with Cogley’s ripping band are the songs themselves, which showcase a potpourri of Americana influences and have a cross-generational appeal. “These are songs I really like,” said producer JC Hopkins, whose own tunes have been Grammy nominated and covered by Norah Jones and Willie Nelson. “Paul didn’t fire a single blank. It’s all accessible yet complex music here.” The album title refers to the gold rush mining site in Nevada City where Cogley once lived in a school bus. Cogley sold the bus for the down payment on a home where he still stays part time with his wife today. But American Hill might also be interpreted as homage to the music that inspired its singer-songwriter, and, perhaps, his own personal hill he climbed as well, in order to make this impressive recording debut.

Taken from Last.fm

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