Artist Information Biography If you listen well, lifelong traveler and musical hobo Scott Cook's new album may remind you just how rare a commodity honesty is in today's music scene.  There's an awful lot of talk about it, but very few songwriters really wear their hearts on their sleeve, and even fewer do it with such lyrical craftsmanship and raw feeling as you'll hear on this record. It has been two years and a lot of roads traveled since Scott Cook traded in his job teaching kindergarten in Taiwan for a full-time living as a musician on the road in North America, and while he's certainly experienced his share of hardships and struggle along the way, he isn't thinking of quitting.  His self-published 2007 debut, Long Way to Wander, made the national folk top ten on college and community radio, and kept him on the road for the better part of two years, living in his van, playing constantly, picking up stories and passing them on.  His newest "love letter to the world" is a fitting follow-up, and his best work to date.  Entitled This One's on the House, it's a collection of road stories, existential ramblings, and musings on love, loss, and the courage to love again.  The musical palate is even broader this time, with nods to folk, roots, country, and soul, and the capable help of some of Edmonton's finest players: Jesse Dee on electric guitar, Bill Bourne on guitar and vocals, Doug Organ on piano and hammond organ, Thom Golub and Moses Gregg on upright bass, Dwayne Hrynkiw and Pascal Lecours on drums, Darrek Anderson on pedal steel, Cam Neufeld on fiddle, Jason Kodie on accordion, Mike Sadava on mandolin, and Lynett McKell, Jacquie B, Megan Kemshead, Haley Myrol and Dana Wylie on vocals, as well as Matthew Ord and Jez Hellard from England, playing guitars and harmonica respectively.  Engineer Doug Organ at Edmontone Studios and mixer Brad Smith worked together with Scott to produce a spacious, lushly textured album that will surprise Cook's longtime fans and undoubtedly introduce many more to the work of this prairie balladeer. A wearer of many hats, Cook also builds websites, writes poetry, fiction and non-fiction, and co-organizes Taiwan's Peace Festival, a non-profit music and arts festival that raises money for peace work and charitable work on Taiwan and worldwide.  He can be found on www.scottcook.net. Scott has toured extensively in North America and Taiwan,  including appearances at Taiwan's Spring Scream Festival (7 times) and Peace Festival (4 times), Canada's North Country Fair (4 times), South Country Fair (2 times), Fred Eaglesmith's Southern Picnic (2 times), Pembina River Nights, Sasquatch Festival (4 times), Edge of the World Music Festival, Waynefest, Sonic Orchard and Come Together Music Festivals, and America's Earthworks Harvest Gathering and the Hoot on the Hudson with Pete Seeger, as well as legendary venues like the Sidetrack Cafe in Edmonton, the Railway Club in Vancouver and the Free Times Cafe in Toronto.  Long Way to Wander spent a month in the top ten on Earshot's national campus & community radio charts and the follow-up, This One's on the House, is currently getting airplay across Canada. "Basically, this is exactly the kind of act you'd be happy to stumble down the hill or through the birches and hear at a music festival... warm like a campfire, familiar like the lake down the road... deep-thinking, introspective stuff" -Fish Griwkowsky, The Edmonton Sun "Long Way To Wander resonates with a Dylan-esque verve, a Waits-ian post-modernity, Cook baring his soul in public for all to hear. The songs mostly revolve around Cook's strings - guitar, banjo, ukelele - and his low, booming voice... His observations are spot-on and often funny, and places and people come to life vividly, whether Cook is singing about his grandmother in Alabama or about being lost somewhere in the middle of Asia... Long Way To Wander represents a huge leap forward for a singer-songwriter who has many more stories to tell." -Francois Marchand, The Edmonton Journal "'Long Way To Wander' is an eloquent, finger picked, perfect for Sunday listening record" -Americana UK "Being a writer as well as a musician, his songs are rich, atmospheric stories about his geographical and philosophical journeys...  His music has the ability to transport one instantly to a space of campfire-lit, creek-dipping radiance. Listening to this album is perennially serendipitous--like one is chancing upon a well-traveled old soul by the fireside, whose stripping-away-the-veneer knowledge of the world is never jaded, but always innocent." -Monica Chattaway, CKUA Radio "Alternating between an acoustic guitar and a banjo, frontman Scott Cook led the steamy crowd of dreadlocked dancers along like a barefooted pied piper with his eclectic mix of musical styles. At the heart of it all was an undeniable groove and a message of universal love that gave the night a warm fuzzy vibe even a cynical old bastard like myself couldn't ignore." -Phil Duperron, Vue Weekly, Edmonton Instrumentation Scott Cook - vocals, guitar, banjo, ukulele, harmonica, melodica, glockenspiel, mbira, percussion, and loop sampler & the Long Weekends: Moses Gregg - bass Pascal Lecours - drums Jesse Dee - electric guitar Jacqueline Boisvert - vocal harmonies Megan Kemshead - vocal harmonies Lynett McKell - vocal harmonies Discography The Anglers - A Quarter Ounce of Prevention, 2003 Scott Cook - Long Way to Wander, 2007 Scott Cook - This One's on the House, 2009 Links