Cooper’s talent has been obvious from the beginning. Signed with Elektra Records in 1973, that talent has taken him around the world, performing regularly to enthusiastic audiences in Europe and nearly every state in the Union. Always a critic’s favorite, he’s never rested on his laurels, as The Conjurer makes clear.
Often accorded the accolade of a ’songwriter’s songwriter,’ his songs have been covered by numerous recording artists, many acclaimed songwriters themselves, including Maura O’Connell, Claire Lynch, Pierce Pettis and Susan Werner. He has been a featured performer on many prestigious TV and radio programs, including Austin City Limits and Mountain Stage, and he is a much-anticipated annual regular on the main stage at the esteemed Kerrville Music Festival. His worldwide audience includes hotbeds of Americana music in Europe, where Cooper has performed at the Belfast Songwriters Festival and tours regularly in Sweden and Denmark, often with support from the well-regarded Danish band The Sentimentals.
Working for the first time with co-producer Thomm Jutz on The Conjurer provided Cooper a creative boost. A guitarist in Nanci Griffith’s touring band, Jutz also has worked with Mary Gauthier, Pat McLaughlin, David Olney and Steve Young, among others. Working in Jutz’s TJ Studios in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., Cooper went for a rawer, more organic sound than on past recordings.
As the album’s
eclectic nature suggests, Cooper long ago
stopped trying to fit into categories.
Ostensibly an acoustic singer-songwriter
presenting contemporary adult songs, Cooper
draws on folk, blues, rock, reggae, pop and
country. The Conjurer features some of the
bluest, rawest music of Cooper’s career, as well
as some of the sunniest and most tender. He ties
it all together through sheer force of his
creative vision, his expressive voice and his
distinctively rhythmic guitar style.
