Album of the day: Marc Cohn, “Marc Cohn”

Marc Cohn
Marc Cohn (Cd Atlantic 7567-82178-2)

One of the most intense voices in the panorama of American songwriting, Marc Cohn has earned the admiration of illustrious colleagues such as David Crosby, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb and Bonnie Raitt since his first album in 1991.
The album also earned him the Grammy Award for Best Debut, and propelled Cohn to the top of the US charts
to the single “Walking in Memphis” (subsequently covered successfully in a pop/dance version by Cher).

Strongly influenced by Van Morrison, Cohn has a fantastic voice that immediately places him among the best performers on the contemporary scene and a notable ability for melodic writing, with highly evocative lyrics where many elements of the American collective imagination appear, from Elvis to the myth on the road, summarized in short stories full of charm.
The music favors a predominantly acoustic dimension with delicate West Coast influences which sees Cohn's piano as the protagonist (in subsequent albums the guitar will instead be favored). The harmonies are simple and immediate but always manage to avoid banality, the choruses are effective without ever giving in to the charm of chart pop and the final result must certainly be counted among the best debut albums ever made.

Unfortunately, the mass success for him did not last long, although the quality of his records (few and well thought out) remained very high. Both the subsequent, magnificent, “The Rainy Season” and the equally beautiful “Burning the Daze” did not repeat the success of the initial album precisely because Cohn did not try to copy the formula but expanded his writing with darker colors and complex.
In 2005 a self-produced live album was released, absolutely worth listening to, on sale on the marccohn website.

net; a month after this release, a robber shot him during an attempted carjacking and hit him with a bullet in the head: incredibly Cohn survived, and continued his record production.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.