Phil Cook: All These Years
Presented by The Great Northern
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
6:30 pm Doors // 7:30 pm Event
$25 Advance General Admission
All Ages
Ticket Purchases are Final and Non-Refundable
Music that feels like a mirror held to a heart and mind squinting to find light in our age of darkness.
Wisconsin-born/North Carolina-based Phil Cook (Bon Iver, Indigo Girls, Hiss Golden Messenger, Megafaun) has returned to his first musical love: solo piano.
The instrument of his upbringing is now the most direct line between his fathoms-deep sensitivity and the ears of his audience.
On the new release All These Years, Cook's playing—a chronicle of gorgeous and emotionally expansive meditations—reorients expectations of solo piano composition and improvisation.
The exquisite album, inspired by winter in the Upper Midwest, is just the start for a player approaching the grand old instrument from the foundation of American folk music.
You already know Phil Cook, at least if you’ve listened to essential folk-rock, indie rock, or even gospel records of the last decade. The spirited piano solo on Hiss Golden Messenger’s “Day O Day,” the incisive melody of Bon Iver’s “AUTAC,” the mesmerizing elegance of the keys on Hurray for the Riff Raff’s “Life on Earth”—yes, those are all Phil Cook, a beloved collaborator capable of transforming an entire song with a pretty lick here, a sharp line there. The War on Drugs, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Ani DiFranco, Nathaniel Rateliff, Frazey Ford, the Indigo Girls: Cook’s partnerships in just the last dozen years shape their own best-of.
Two decades ago, Cook left his native Wisconsin for North Carolina to be closer to the American roots music that had taken over his life: the blues, bluegrass, old-time, country. He funneled his deep understanding of this music into his avant-folk band Megafaun and subsequent duties as an in-demand sideman. In early 2020, Cook paused touring duties with others to focus on his songs. He found a cabin in the North Carolina mountains, penning aubades, nocturnes, and endearing reflections. The results feel like a mirror held to a heart and mind squinting to find light in our age of darkness, hope in a moment where it’s easier to believe in its absence.
Traditional folk music was often known as the sound of people getting by, of chronicling despair and worry so that they might get through that stuff, if only for the next five minutes. Technique, melody, and vocabulary aside, that is the absolute essence Phil Cook summons at the piano. This music makes you glad to have heard it, that it exists, and that you’re here with the chance to be glad at all.
The Great Northern celebrates our cold, creative winters through ten days of diverse programming that invigorate mind and body. In an era of changing climate that threatens our signature season, we seek to create community, inspire action, and share the resilient spirit of the North with the world.