Andy Cook

Sometimes we find the things we’re looking for, and sometimes they find us. I grew up not having a thing to do with music – playing college hockey, obtaining a masters degree, and advancing in a career were center stage. But then a few years ago a song came on the radio that made me want to make songs too. I’m not certain why. Maybe it’s because we all have stories to tell, we all have things inside that deserve to take flight into the world. “What you are is not who you’ll be” – if we dream, we can be whoever we want.

These songs are about feeling like we know ourselves one moment, and like we’re lost the next. About having almost everything, but not the one thing. About all the spaces we find ourselves, inside and out. Because sometimes all we can hang onto are hopes and dreams, and in this space that might be all we need.

Andy Cook’s second release In Space delivers an evolved sound that holds the guitar-driven Americana of his debut at the core, while adding new layers of sound and a direction that is both modern and reminiscent. Produced by Jeremy Ylvisaker (Andrew Bird, Haley Bonar, Alpha Consumer), In Space covers territory from sweeping and psychedelic to urgent and pressing, with lyrics that pit a wry cynicism against determined optimism.

Cook was born and raised in Minneapolis, and pursued a very-Minnesota dream of being an ice hockey goalie. Hockey brought Cook to the East Coast for college, and perhaps without realizing it those long bus trips are when the interest in music began to develop. While teammates listened to hip-hop and hard rock, Cook found himself drawn to a combination of classic American country and the icons of 1960’s British rock and roll.

The desire to play that began on hockey bus trips took hold as Cook grew in a career managing clinics at Minnesota’s largest community hospital and took to long-distance triathlon racing. “Doing” was a part of life, but “making” became a way to live it. Cook had to pick up a guitar, learn to play, and begin to write. What started as an interested effort grew and grew, until Cook found himself immersed in the Minneapolis music community, learning from everyone he could and looking up to artists who a short time later would become teachers, producers, collaborators and bandmates. Now about to release a second EP, there is only more to come from this late-comer to the music scene.

With special guests Harvey Benson and ar.birn. Turf Club. Thursday, February 9, 2017.  7:30PM. $8 advance, $10 door. 21+.