Grammy-winning songwriter Marc Cohn gets reflective on new tour, plays 11/13
Marc Cohn decided to mark his 25th anniversary as a recording artist with a tour that celebrates his self-titled debut album. He even opted to perform the songs in the same order they appear on the disc.
One little problem, however: The album starts with the rousing “Walking with Memphis,” a guaranteed crowd-pleaser and, quite easily, his signature tune.
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“The biggest song I have comes first on the record,” he says, from his home in New York City. “But you know, in a way it’s been really great to realize that the people coming to see me are not necessarily coming to hear ‘Memphis.’"
The song makes sense in other ways as his opener, he says.
“It was really my first musical statement to the public,” he says. “It’s the first track off my first album and it’s kind of about the joy of music, so it’s the perfect way to start the show.”
The show normally features the 1991 “Marc Cohn” album performed in its entirety, followed by tunes from such albums as "The Rainy Season" and "Listening Booth: 1970." He ties everything together with stories that talk about the inspiration behind the songs and visual backdrops that range from family photos to artistic impressions of the music.
“This tour has been a whole different experience for me,” says Cohn, 57. “It’s somewhere between a normal concert and a Broadway show. I’m certainly not the first one to do something like this, but in and of itself it’s very interesting.”
Aside from the glorious “Walking in Memphis,” “Marc Cohn” is filled with evocative, reflective songs that have stood the test of time. It’s no surprise that the lovely “True Companion” emerged as a wedding favorite. Other songs, like the haunting “Ghost Train,” manage to be both personal and universal at the same time.
In conjunction with the 25th anniversary, he also has issued “Careful What You Dream,” which features demo recordings of tunes from the era that didn’t make his debut album. It reaffirms the solid consistency of Cohn’s writing — these are the leftovers? — and the interpretative power of the man's warm, soulful voice.
A couple of songs on the new disc — “From the Faraway Nearby” and “Chilly Wind” — are gorgeous and emotionally raw, filled with vivid imagery. Like “Ghost Train,” they were inspired by his mother, who died when Cohn was 2.
“I wrote a lot of songs about her passing, and when I made the first record, I was aware that I didn’t want to put too many songs on there about that,” he says. “Or, they just may have been too extremely personal.”
Sometimes, he says, the vulnerability and honesty of those songs can grab him in concert.
“I’ve had moments where I feel just a little more emotional than I would like, but what’s the downside of that?” he asks. “That just means I’m in the performance. When I’m in the audience, I can sense when someone on stage is phoning in it or when they’re connected in the moment. Obviously, I can’t get so emotional I can’t do that show; that doesn’t work either. But feeling what those songs are about is like getting back to the essence of them.”
With all the touring he’s done this year — he’ll have performed more than 120 shows before 2016 ends — Cohn admits that he hasn’t had much time to write for himself. He’s raising two sons (newswoman Elizabeth Vargas is their mother and his ex) and he has two older children from a previous marriage. But he had a hand in writing several songs on soul man William Bell’s “This is Where I Live” and has a track on David Crosby’s “Lighthouse.”
“That’s kept the juices flowing,” he says.
Cohn, who beat out the likes of Seal and Boyz II Men for the best new artist Grammy 25 years ago, sounds like he's at a good place in his life. Well, except for those pesky music lists that include him as a one-hit wonder due to "Walking in Memphis" technically being his only Top 40 appearance on the Billboard singles chart.
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“I loathe that expression with all my being,” he says. “I think there’s an unverbalized distinction between some bands and artists that put out one song and disappear. I think it’s inaccurate to call me or Shawn Colvin or Suzanne Vega or Joan Osborne or a lot of my friends that, because they didn’t disappear. They kept on making beautiful, brilliant, important music. To me, it’s a very pejorative phrase.”
Plus, he adds, “If ‘Walking in Memphis’ was the only song that mattered to audiences, I wouldn’t have been able to do this for the last 25 years. I'm really proud of my entire body of work, and to have my entire career summed up as a one-hit wonder? I don't like it.”
And that's another good reason to put "Walking in Memphis" at the start of the show.
Reach the reporter at randy.cordova@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8849. Twitter.com/randy_cordova.
Marc Cohn
When: 6 and 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13.
Where: Musical Instrument Museum, 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix.
Admission: $38.50-$48.50.
Details: 480-478-6000, themim.org.