In February 2009, Singer/Songwriter Brandon Sampson of the Minnesota band Six Mile Grove will be performing along with Nashville native singer/songwriter Dana Cooper at select venues across Europe. The friendship between Dana Cooper and Six Mile Grove began at the Americana Music Conference, held annually in Nashville, TN. The conference acts as a way to connect musicians to “behind-the-sceners” of the music industry.  Dana Cooper performed an acoustic showcase hosted by the conference, along with other well known artists Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Jim Lauderdale. Six Mile Grove became instant fans, and shortly after introducing themselves, fast friends. This will be Dana Cooper and Brandon Sampson’s fourth tour together.

 

 

Dana Cooper is a 25 year veteran of the music industry with a resume that includes records released by MCA and Compass, performances on Austin City Limits, and stage-sharing with the likes of Melissa Etheridge, Lyle Lovett, and the Neville Brothers. Music reviewer Clay Steakley, of The Rage Nashville, TN, compares Dana Cooper to “a cross between Flannery O’Connor and Bob Dylan.” Cooper describes his latest album “Made of Mud” as a collection of songs about “mortality, politics, religion, love, the struggle of living, and the possibilities of how much we can accomplish.”

 

 

Brandon Sampson is a farm boy with a guitar and a story to tell. The soulful storytelling and no frills style of his music is cultivated even deeper in Six Mile Grove’s forthcoming album “Steel Mule,” a homage to both the humble life of small town farmers and their families, and the inevitable effects of progress, as children grow up and move away to find their own destinies. Singer/Songwriter Brandon Sampson shares “This album is about growing up and becoming a man… that the only way to make a mark on this world is through your family and your legacy… when you look at your son and want to instill in him the importance of music… The only way to become immortal is to let those seeds spread.”