You made a comment in your Southland Mission documentary that you feel “so far removed” geographically and culturally from some of your favorite gospel and blues musicians. We made a live record at their home church in Newton Grove and that was a wonderful experience! We will have more information on that release soon! They haven’t released much music on a national scale, although they have traveled internationally with their music frequently over the years. The Branchettes are a Johnston County, NC staple of the gospel community. It feels humbling and beautiful to be working with them. How does it feel to be a part of making the first official release in 2019 for a local Newton Grove, North Carolina gospel ensemble that has been singing and preaching their truth since 1973? Amongst all of the gospel and blues records I’ve discovered and successfully now own because of all of your social media posts and recommendations, this is a group I’ve struggled to find. Recently an in-studio clip emerged on your Instagram story with Sister Lena Mae Perry and the Branchettes. Maybe someday I’ll use it on a release, who knows? I always aim to at the start. We had a lot of material to do and I assembled a big band of talented musicians, including JT Bates, Tamisha Waden, Ryan Gustafson, Brevan Hampden and my brother Brad Cook. The formation of the current group of Guitarheels came as a result of a wedding in the mountains of western NC. The only Guitarheel that remained with me after that was my keyboardist James Anthony Wallace. I loved how the name looked on the poster, so I kept it. The band that night was insane – Mandolin Orange, Chatham County Line, Hiss Golden Messenger and my dad’s accordion duo Squeeze This. When it came time for me to make a poster for this Ry Cooder tribute show, where we played the entirety of ‘Boomer’s Story’ at a beautiful ballroom, I told them Phil Cook and The Guitarheels. I first used the name Guitarheels in a list of joke band names that I’d jotted down. How did you connect with all these musicians? Will you ever use that band name on an official release? Talk about the formation of Phil Cook & The Guitarheels. The instrumental stuff feels done and isn’t tugging at my sleeve.
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The lyrical songs are instrumental pieces that I’ve completed and they keep tugging at me for something more and I walk and drive around with them on all the time and words slowly emerge. Otherwise, they were composed in the exact same manner. The main and only difference is that the instrumental tunes don’t reach the point of adding lyrics. Tell us about the differences in your craft, performing and recording full-length works of instrumental music, versus songs with lyrics Recently, we spoke to him about his work… These batch of songs perfectly exhibit the all-round talents of this gifted musician. Recently, guitarist and songwriter Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger) released As Far As I Can See, an instrumental album that served as a follow up to his 2018 record, People Are My Drug.