Marc Cohn’s Journey To Memphis and Beyond

Sept. 23, 2016

“Put on my blue suede shoes and I boarded the plane … touched down in the land of the Delta Blues, in the middle of the pouring rain …”

So begins singer-songwriter Marc Cohn’s huge 1991 hit song, “Walking in Memphis,” the song inspired by Cohn’s own journey to that very city in the mid-‘80s, where he has said he became “baptized in the world of Blues” when he was in his early 20s. As the lyrics of the song go, Cohn actually did set his feet on the famed Beale Street. He did go to see Reverend Green. He did meet a singer named Muriel at a club called The Hollywood Cafe. And the song that evolved from that trip did change Cohn’s life.

“It’s really my calling card. I’m so grateful. I don’t even feel like the song is just mine any more,” Cohn said. “The fact that it’s resonated with so many people for so long means so much.” The real-life character of Muriel, Cohn explained, was something of a guide for him on that early visit to the Tennessee music hub. “She invited me up on stage with her,” he recollected. “A Jewish kid from Cleveland, up on stage in Memphis to sing gospel songs, and I knew none of them! She was saying the lyrics in my ear as I was singing. After I sang, she whispered to me, ‘I think you can let go now — go home and write the songs you are meant to write.’” The encounter had a profound effect on Cohn. After he wrote “Walking in Memphis,” he returned to Memphis to find Muriel. “She never got to hear the final version of that song; she died five months before it was released,” he said. But he did get to see her again, and he played her a rough version of that track, along with some other songs. “When I asked her what she thought of them, she said, ‘You know the one you mentioned me in? That’s the best one,’” he recounted with a laugh. “She was an unknown local hero of Memphis. She changed my life.”

Cohn had spent years demoing songs for other musicians before getting a break for his own music and getting signed to Atlantic Records. “Early on I mostly did singing for other people,” he said. “I was so lucky when I first moved to New York City. I sang for Jimmy Webb, [composers] Leiber and Stoller, so many others. I’d lived in Los Angeles prior to that for three years, trying to make something happen, and I never found the center of music there. I’m not sure there is one in L.A.! It still took a while to get signed once I got to New York, but things became easier.”

Today, Cohn is eight albums into his career. A couple of standouts include his sophomore studio effort, The Rainy Season, on which he collaborated with the great Bonnie Raitt, and his 2010 covers album, Listening Booth: 1970. “The second album is my favorite,” Cohn said. “And don’t get me started on Bonnie! I love her as a person, and I think she’s actually one of our best singers. I’ve opened over 50 shows for her over the past few years, and watching her perform is like a master class in pretty much everything.” The covers album, he added, was the most fun to make so far. “It was neat because we decided to focus on cover songs all from one year,” Cohn said. “We didn’t think anyone had done that before.”

His latest album, Careful What You Dream: Lost Songs and Rarities (March 2016), required Cohn to dig deep into his own back catalog. “It’s been 25 years since my first record came out, and I’ve been celebrating that in a variety of ways,” he said. “I thought it would be interesting to find demos of the original songs from that album, so I dug them up. But what I didn’t expect to find was a treasure trove of old songs that I’d forgotten about.” The demos album is serving as a something of a placeholder until Cohn’s next album. He said he spends so much time on the road, it can be tough to schedule in stu-dio time.

“It’s not unusual for me to have big gaps between albums,” he said. “Touring for me is never-ending. I’m constantly leaving and coming back. But it really has been a while since I’ve put out a new album … so I’ll be working on that.”

Marc Cohn will be in concert at the City Opera House in Traverse City on Tuesday, Sept. 27 at 7:30pm. For tickets and more information, visit city-operahouse.org or call 231-941-8082.