Who Is Brent Cobb? The Story Behind His Journey to Country Music
Who is Brent Cobb? The singer-songwriter joined us to chat about his journey to country music. Get to know the rising star here…
Brent Cobb // Photo Credit: Jace Kartye
Quick Facts:
Full Name – Brent Cobb
Birthday – 08/01/1986
Hometown – Americus, Georgia
Current City – Americus, Georgia
Musical Influences – Bobbie Gentry, Otis Redding, Lee Dorsey, Allen Toussaint, Ronnie VanZant
Label – Ol’ Buddy Records/Thirty Tigers
Current Album – “When Country Came Back to Town” (As of article date – 9/25/23)
The Beginning:
Today’s spotlight shines on an artist, who has firmly planted his feet into the country music genre. Brent Cobb has been a musician all of his life and has experienced so many great things throughout his blossoming career.
Growing up in small-town Georgia, Cobb was born into a musical household. “We ain’t ever had no money,” began the singer, “but there is a lot of music that comes from here, plus my dad still plays in a band every weekend and opened for a lot of people, when I was growing up.”
During his childhood, the singer-songwriter recalls being infatuated with many artists, who happened to grow up near his hometown in Georgia in neighboring small towns like Macon, Albany, and more. Heavily influenced by his father, as well as artists like The Allman Brothers, Otis Redding, and Dolly Parton, Cobb was a true music fan throughout his life.
“Where I’m from you have Macon, where’s there is so much musical influences. The first thing people usually think of when they hear Macon is The Allman Brothers, but Otis Redding was also from Macon,” shared the singer. “Then right down the road you have Ray Charles from Albany, which is 30 minutes down the road from where I’m from. Then you go over a little bit, you have James Charles. So you have the founding fathers of all music really.”
In a family who championed a love for music, Cobb thought of music as a “heart-led” thing rather than a career move. “I was always a songwriter, even when I was a kid. When I was six, seven years old, I would write songs about everything […] I didn’t think of it as a career, it was always just something fun to do, that I enjoyed doing.”
The Turning Point:
Interestingly enough, Cobb began to consider a career in music when he was around eighteen years old. After creating a six song acoustic demo for fun, a sequence of events led that dream to become a reality.
“When I was eighteen, I had a great aunt that passed away, and I had to be a pole bearer at her funeral in Richmond, Georgia, which is where my Cobb side of the family is from,” began the singer. “At this funeral, I met a distant cousin of mine and because we are all a musical family, word had gotten around that this cousin was a big L.A. producer, and I that had been writing songs and I had recorded a little six song demo. I shamelessly offered to give him that little demo, and I did.”
Eventually, that same cousin actually listened to his demo, and invited him to come make a record in L.A. with him. Cobb began going back and forth to L.A. for about a year and half, all while playing in a cover band in his hometown.
In 2007, the singer was invited to open up for Luke Bryan, where his bassist gave the little demo to Bryan himself. Subsequently, Bryan invited Cobb to Nashville, and introduced him to different people around town including the people at Carnival Music Publishing.
Deciding to remain loyal to his blossoming career in L.A., Cobb decided to go that route. After a four month stint in L.A., he decided it wasn’t for him. Eventually, that led him to move to Nashville, where he worked at Walgreens for a year before calling his connections at Carnival Music Publishing. “I’ve been with Carnival Music Publishing ever since,” shared the singer.
Today:
Flash forward to today, Cobb has several records to his name. Most recently, the singer-songwriter released his first self-produced record called Southern Star. The ten song project is a true love letter to Cobb’s home state of Georgia. “I was not the person that grew up in a small town that wanted to escape one day, I just never really had any aspirations to leave where I’m from, but I knew I could probably. I think the reason I felt that way is because my dad didn’t do that.”
While Southern Star is about Georgia and all of the great musicians that hail from the start, the record was inspired by Cobb’s late friend Jason Cope, who went by Rowdy. An outlaw hero, a guitarist, a producer, and a pioneer for independent country music, Rowdy was a true inspiration and friend to Cobb.
“I was coming to a place where I needed to make an album for my soul. Rowdy hung out at a bar called the ‘Southern Star.’ […] We’d go hang out there, and I remembered that place and then Rowdy passed away in 2021, and I think that started the inspiration maybe,” he shared. Adding, “I always felt like he didn’t get enough credit for being someone who helped springboard some of this rise to independent country music, because he was in the background writing, and playing guitar, but he influenced a lot of artists.”
This led Cobb to create a record called Southern Star that embodies all of the stars that may or may not be superstars, but sure are Southern stars. “I was thinking about that and the history of music from where I’m from, and I knew that I had to make the album,” shared the singer. “I wrote “Southern Star” pretty much right at that moment and then the rest of the songs just fell out.”
Fans can listen to the record now, and make sure to checkout Cobb’s website to head to a show near you!
Connect:
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Brent Cobb’s music is available everywhere you buy or stream music. Take a listen below and check out more new recently released tunes on our ‘New Country Music’ playlist. Be sure to give the playlist a follow for your weekly new country music fix.
