Later this month, Brent Cobb will return to the UK for the first time since 2019 as he heads to London as part of a series of four shows in Europe. As he prepares to head to the capital for one night only, we caught up with Brent to find out more about the shows and what he has been up to the release of his Southern Star album last year.
How's it going, Ian?
Hey, I'm good. How are you, Brent? I'm all right. I haven't done a Zoom meeting in a little while, but we should also sit down in London!
We can definitely sit down in London for a beer! I have to admit, I'm really looking forward to the London show though because it's going to be your first time over here in five years! That's what I was going to say. I really can't believe it's been a half a decade, man. I mean, it doesn't feel like it. We were supposed to go over with Cadillac Three and that year was crazy and that wound up getting cancelled.But that was in 2020or 2021. I don't remember, and, yeah, we haven't been, we haven't been in a long time.
I know your tour schedule in America has just been crazy this year. Is it nice to be able to fit in these few European dates? Yeah, you know, it's kind of crazy because we're in and out real fast. We're not really going to be there for that long. And I know we have a couple of festivals right on each side of that here in the States as well. I'd like to think that this will sort of just be a precursor to a little more of an extended stay for next year, I hope.
Is it time to conquer the world now? Yeah, you know, just go out and conquer the world. Yes.
How have the shows been going in the States? Um, really good. I feel like this is maybe a little more like what I thought our 2020 would have been had, you know, had we all been able to continue to live and tour normally. It's been a year of growth.I've seen a lot of new faces at shows. People are coming that only know the words to Southern Star and don't know any of the albums before that, which is great. And it's been a really cool year to just see all these new faces, you know.
Well, as the head of the record label and the person who produced the album, that's obviously great that they know Southern Star. Yeah. Well, that's what you want each time. Yeah.If I could just get this many with each album release, you know, this many new fans each time, then I think we would continue to be all right.
Is it crazy now to think it's been a year pretty much since Southern Star came out? It doesn't feel that way. Yeah. Just the other day we were playing a show, we had a little festival in Greensboro, North Carolina, this past Saturday and before I would do the song Southern Star, I say, well, I got a new album I put out and I was like, well, shit, it's not really new anymore. It's pretty much a year old. So, it feels, it feels a little strange, but I don't know, man, it's these songs. None of my songs to me get old to play. I enjoy playing, I still play all the stuff, you know! Stuff from Shine On Rainy Day, from And No Place Left To Leave. I play all the songs.It's weird that it's a year old, but I just enjoy playing them, you know.
Is it getting harder to make a set list now that you're ticking through the album releases and hopefully planning more in the future? It has gotten easier. No, I have always looked forward to being able to just play a whole show of my songs and that songs that people mostly know. I've never been good at learning lyrics to songs that I don't write for some reason. It can be a classic song I've heard my whole life and my brain just doesn't compute that way! I don't have to write any of my own lyrics now. I can remember every word that I've ever wrote! A good example of this was Tuesday night, uh, we did a, a Rolling Stone show as George Dickel did a tribute show for that old Wanted! The Outlaws album, you know, Waylon and Jesse, and Willie and Tompall Glaser.I did Yesterday's Wine, Willie Nelson, and then me and Maggie Rose did Waylon’s Suspicious Minds. And Yesterday's Wine, I've been singing, you know, like my whole life, and I, I cannot remember those words! I mean, I just completely just like flubbed through the whole thing. So it is nice to be able to get to a point where I can play two hours worth of music that is all original. Plus, I don't mess up the lyrics most of the time.
With several festival shows in Europe, this time when you're coming over, you're bringing your full band with you. How much is that going to change the show, do you think, for the people who've seen you over here before? Man, uh, I think some people don't know how to take us because it's some kind of a rock show, you know, I know all my albums are, I always get accused of maybe like being, you know, what people say, like honey dripped, Georgia dew, as slow as the fall in the South, you know, like this, it's almost getting lackadaisical sometimes, you know, in my delivery, I guess. Our show is, uh, you know, it's a kind of a rock show. We do all the songs, we do the more laid-back ones too, but it's fun. It's a fun show. And we're actually a band who's a band and we like each other and we're actually having fun playing
You’ve upgraded your venue slightly from your first trip in 2017. You started off at the Slaughtered Lamb on that first trip and I can see the memories coming back in your face there! That was great, man. The Slaughtered Lamb. Yeah.I met so many cool people that night and Jade Bird too – that was the first time we ever met was, was there.
And now it's obviously going to be Bush Hall this time around, such kind of a cool venue in Shepherds Bush. Have you kind of looked into the difference of the venue and things? No, I have not. Tell me what's the, what, what is the difference?
This is one of my favourite venues in London. It's just a single standing auditorium room, a kind of classic London venue which feels so intimate. It gives you a real theatre feel with the chandeliers and red curtain. It is probably a very stereotypical room when people want to think of a classic UK venue where some world-renowned artists have played over the years! Yeah. That's going to be great. I want it.That's what, I mean, look at me, I'm a stereotype of the American South for the most part. It'll be great.
You're heading to Germany to do the Sound of Nashville Festival too, which is going to be their first outdoor country festival. Are you kind of looking forward to testing out that crowd as well? Ah, yeah, man, that's what I mean. You know, this whole run feels that way. It just kind of feels like we are going to get reacquainted with each other. You know, hopefully it'll be like seeing an old friend that we hadn't seen in a while and then we'll all pick right back up where we left off. But I'm looking forward to just seeing everyone. The reaction here has been, I've never gotten necessarily like a bad reaction, but it's always it's it just feels like a lot more energy this time here. I am curious to go there and just kind of get a feel for like, well, all right, let's now plan our 2025.
It's great for country music and for a southern artist to kind of be able to broaden across these countries as you play in four countries on this trip. Is it good to kind of see countries like Denmark putting on these festivals that have got artists from the US and Canada coming over? Yeah. It's always historically been this way for some reason, but it seems like people appreciate the music that is originates from the American South better there than they do here. I don't know what that's about, but, a lot of times it seems like it takes people from outside of the states to sort of replay back the music that is birthed here back to the people from here before the people from here appreciate it as much as people over there already do.It'll be it'll be cool to see that happen.I'm sure everybody that you've ever interviewed talks about how receptive the crowds are there. You kind of freak you out a little bit is not used to people paying that close attention.
Lots of people say how we're more of a listening crowd. Whereas as Nashville's becoming more of a party town, it's turning into a party crowd in Nashville, where everyone is listening and singing. Yeah, and that crowd that you're talking about, that Nashville sort of is, that is how everywhere is. Me and Adam Hood were just talking about how hard of a market the American South is to break as an independent artist, even though we play the music that comes from there. The listener, for some reason, Nashville is a great example of that as a whole.For some reason, it's just hard to get them to pay attention. Maybe because everybody, you know, grows up around it and hears it all the time. I don't know.
Talking of Nashville, you have just announced a show in Nashville headlining The Ryman, though, to finish off the year. How is that going to be? Yeah, I did. Man, I have played The Rhyming several times. I have never headlined it.I am going to make a show out of it. I'll say that. I was just talking to my tour manager here this morning, and man, I'm really excited.It's going to be, I don't want to even say everything, like there's a few things that are going to happen that are, it's going to be like, it's going to be a big show, but it's not going to lose any of its intimacy.
So where does that kind of rank on bucket list moments for you, headlining The Ryman? I mean, it's definitely top three. It's more than anything, it's a validation, I feel like, that it's like, all right, man, it is working. Thank God, you know, more than anything.
Moving into next year, are you looking at producing more work yourself going forward now, having done it for the Southern Star album? Yeah. Well, I hope to get in the studio this December, working on my own album. Then I've been producing a couple other things.I just produced my friend Sally Jay, who is a wonderful artist. She's actually wrote the song Miss Ater that I covered on the Southern Star album. We just came out of Capricorn and it's so good.We're working on getting some vocals on that stuff right now, and I'm constantly producing a bunch of stuff. Me and Hood just went back in.It's all kind of stuff happening all the time.
Yeah. As you said, time just kind of keeps ticking by almost too fast, doesn't it? Especially when you're the artist, producer and touring. Well, yeah. But see, I never had the one thing, I never had one thing that just blew up. So, I have to do all of it.I just try to keep throwing darts at the wall, after a while I hit a bullseye one day, I guess. Maybe not. If I just have a bunch of darts on the wall. That'd be all right.
It's about 11 days now till you're over here. So, go get the bags packed and get the band on the road. Looking forward to it.
No, thanks so much for your time, Brent. Really appreciate it. And I'll see you on the 19th. Yeah, man. Thank you for caring.
BRENT COBB AUGUST 2024 EUROPEAN SHOWS 19th – London, Bush Hall 21st – Utrecht, Tivoliredenburg (Club Nine) 23rd – Tonder, Tonder Festival 25th – Koln, Sound of Nashville Open Air