Singer-songwriter Elizabeth Cook often is compared to Loretta Lynn — though her lilting, unabashedly Southern voice recalls Dolly Parton.
Like Lynn, Cook was embraced by Nashville early in her career, winning a spot on the Grand Ole Opry in 2000 and logging over 300 appearances since. And like Lynn, Cook brings a colorful backstory and feisty feminist leanings to closely observed songs that freewheel from poignant to topical to humorous.
Cook’s new recording, “Welder,” is dedicated to her father, a musician and sometimes moonshiner from South Georgia and Central Florida who learned the welding trade while doing time in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.
Cook’s latest tales, which she compares to the heat and spark of welding, reveal raw realities about the 2008 death of her mother and the struggles of a sibling (“Mama’s Funeral”; “Heroin Addict Sister”) while celebrating the silliness of love and sex with giddy abandon (“El Camino”; “Yes to Booty”).
“I’m not stoic, that’s for sure,” Cook said during a recent call from her Nashville home. “I’m emotional and it swings from one end of the pendulum to the other. I find a lot of things absurd. Sometimes I find them absurd in a funny way, and sometimes I find them absurd in a really cruel way.”
“Welder” was produced by Grammy-winner Don Was, who took a break from working on the Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main Street” reissue to book a studio in Nashville. “I’m thinking, ‘He’s not going to take time to come here to make an indie alt-country record,’ ” Cook said. “But he did and with his rock power and stardom as a buffer, there was nobody who could question what I was doing.”
Cook plays Eddie’s Attic on May 26, with her husband, guitarist Tim Carroll, and bassist Bones Hillman. Weekdays 6-10 a.m., Cook can be heard hosting “Apron Strings” on Sirius/XM satellite radio’s Outlaw Country channel — described by the program guide as “a scintillating mix of music, recipes and household cleaning tips.”
Here’s some more of what Cook had to say about her path to Nashville and life since.
Q: What was it like growing up in Wildwood, Fla., in the ’70s and ’80s?
A: A complete pit, really [laughs]. But it’s my pit and I’m very nostalgic about it. I love it and I miss everything about it.
Q: And after high school you went to Georgia Southern, right?
A: Yes. I had a great time there. Too good a time, really. But after six years, I did manage to graduate with a double major in accounting and computer information systems. Those degrees got me a job with Price Waterhouse in Nashville. I got a deal to write songs on Music Row and I got a little indie record deal pretty quickly after that.
Q: But you’ve had your ups and downs in Nashville, haven’t you?
A: Certainly. I got a big record deal right in the height of the pop diva phase of country music. There was Shania [Twain], and the biggest thing happening at my record company was Faith Hill. They were looking for the next Faith Hill and I was not that.
Q: Some of the songs on “Welder” and the notes you wrote for the album suggest you’ve been on a roller coaster ride over the past few years — you called it “emotional whiplash.”
A: It’s true. I was going through some really amazing things. Some big things were starting to happen in my career. I had the radio show and I had Hollywood casting directors calling. And then my mom died and the bottom dropped out. It’s been a long process getting back.
Q: But you seem to be having a lot of fun on the radio.
A: I love it a lot. I don’t really feel like I have that much to say. It’s kind of silly. But I get to say whatever I want to say. I don’t consider myself an exhibitionist-type personality. It’s ironic because I’m in show business. I like writing songs and making music, and if I could do it with a bag over my head, I probably would.
Elizabeth Cook
8 p.m. May 26, $12 advance/$15 door, Eddies Attic, 515 North McDonough Street, Decatur, 404-377-4976, www.eddiesattic.com
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