John Cook

The hardest part of songwriting is always the first line. Well I guess the same can be said of writing a bio…but here goes… I started in music when I was 11. I played all the horns, trumpet, sax, flute, trombone and the French horn. It took me two more years to figure out you can’t play a horn and sing at the same time. And singing was my calling. I was a shy kid who grew up on a tiny farm on the outskirts of my hometown. I didn’t really get a chance to socialize with the other kids my age with all the work that needed to be done and not being in town. Then of course there was the passing of my father when I was just 7. Music filled that void for me. The artists were my voice. They were expressing my thoughts in words and music. I used to stay up late at night listening to a little transistor radio with the blanket pulled over my head so I wouldn’t get yelled at. I can still remember the first time I heard the opening strains of the organ and jangly guitar on Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” I was hooked. Once I got that first guitar in my hand my fate was sealed…sort of… College, career, marriage and fatherhood all took a front seat back then. I continued playing and singing, but my family came first. Food on the table and shoes on my son’s feet took priority. Many, many years were spent as a carpenter banging nails in the freezing cold and blazing sun….I was even “workin’ as a cook for a spell”. Eventually, careers changed, sons grew up to be wonderful men, great loves and lives were sadly and tragically lost. But the music was always there. And I’m thankful and blessed for it. During one especially dark time, it only took one old friend of mine to shove a guitar in my hand and pull me up on stage. It was like I never stopped. Only this time I knew I had come into my own. My playing was at its best, my voice grown more powerful and sincere. I used to live through those songs, but now they’re living through me. I’ve been there. And I think it shows. Thirty some odd years of making music, and I’m living the life I only dreamed of as a young boy…

Moorestown, NJ