America needs to hear the Lance Cowan story

 

The Lance Cowan story isn’t just one of the best stories in country music. It’s one of the best stories in the country itself. It’s a story of devotion, patience, self-belief, humility and a recognition so long overdue it seems like a cultural crime.

It’s not a story about making petulant demands. It doesn’t whine about how it was treated unfairly. It doesn’t want to punch anyone in the mouth

It’s gentle and so well-crafted it sounds like an echo of a Nashville that used to be but is no more.

As a PR pro, Cowan was known as a great guy who did creative and diligent work earning recognition for clients like Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock and the peerless Joe Ely.

Few knew he had a secret. Heck, he wasn’t even sure himself.

Well, the secret’s out.

He’s releasing his second album, “Against The Grain,” March 21. The collection is both long overdue and right on time. That it took him three decades to release his first album, “So Far, So Good,” is neither a sign of procrastination or of a perfectionist.

They are the signs of a man serious about his priorities.

“Music has always been an essential part of my life,” he says. “But when you have kids you start to realize what really matters and to me that means family.”

He didn’t see any value in hitting the road in pursuit of the kind of fame that often leads to hit singles but also to broken homes. 

He calculated his time would come. And he continued to write songs and he continued to hone his craft. As he approached his 60th birthday, the milestone added urgency to his ambitions.

Those dreams began to come true with the release of  “So Far, So Good” last spring.

From www.LanceCowanMusic.com:

“When I decided to release ‘So Far, So Good’ in 2024,”  Cowan explains, “I was really just trying to put together a calling card with the hopes of finding new venues to play.  I had no idea what to expect - in fact, I was pretty nervous about what kind of response I would get.  I was sweating every time a new review showed up.”

 

“Those reviews from his peers and some very tough critics were overwhelming.  “It stinks of quality,” wrote Duncan Warwick of Country Music People. “Cowan is a remarkably talented singer/songwriter who’s every bit as capable and credible as the artists he represents,” echoed Lee Zimmerman in American Songwriter. “Cowan is a superb troubadour tunesmith,” noted critic Robert K. Oermann wrote in Music Row’s DISClaimer. 

 

Richard Young of the Kentucky HeadHunters summed up the sentiment neatly saying “I have watched Lance for years help make other acts sparkle and he never muttered a word about being a singer/songwriter. You never know what is lurking in an eggshell until it opens and surprises crawl out.”

A highlight of the new music is the plaintive “Love Anyway,” about how we must react to the divisions in our lives. Also strong are “Old King Coal,” “Ragged Edge of Nothing,” and “I Can’t Stand The Winter.”

But there’s not a jarring note in the bunch. Play the album in front of a shrill meter and the little red needle will never bounce off “E.”

In an era when so many artists yearn to go viral, a term that still connotes a sort of runny-nosed madness, Cowan’s music is a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup. It has a hardy flavor, clears your head and there’s just something about it that feels therapeutic.

You can go ahead and feel dismayed we were denied access to his talents for 30 years. Or just take it as a hopeful sign that at long last this long-overlooked talent is back for seconds.