COOPER BOONE

From Dolly Parton to “Whispering Bill” Anderson, there’s always been a place in country music for a multi-faceted artist, the kind of relentlessly energetic person who wears many cowboy hats at once. Like Parton, with her movies and theme parks, and Anderson, with his prolific songwriting, TV roles and books, newcomer Cooper Boone is destined to become a Nashville overachiever. His catchy, self-titled debut CD is only the beginning.

“I think most people are a lot of things,” says the personable singer/songwriter, a product of small-town Minnesota. “But a lot of us let fear drive our lives so we get stuck in ruts. I’ve never really been that kind of person. I had a Granny who always believed in me and my dreams…no matter what others might say.”

Indeed, Boone is a person for whom the term “triple threat” is a few items short. He’s co-written most of the songs on his irresistible debut and, of course, is a magnetic draw onstage. But he also co-owns a homey country store in upstate New York, raises chickens on a farm in northeast Pennsylvania, hosts “Cowboy Kitchen,” an online music-themed cooking show based on his own recipes and—no kidding—has had a big-city psychology practice for the past decade. “Boredom’s a killer for me, man!” he says, chuckling. “It doesn’t exist in my world.”

Cooper Boone was born in Wells, Minnesota and grew up in St. Joe, Minnesota, a small farming community near the Mississippi river. His parents, both teachers, planted the seeds of myriad possibility in Boone’s life—his father, in addition to teaching, also is a winemaker and a tennis pro. And everyone in the family—including Cooper’s brother and two sisters—were required to learn a musical instrument and be civically involved.

“There were several things being instilled in me,” Boone recalls. “One was loyalty to the people who care about you, the other was fearlessness. My family were perpetually curious people and I definitely carry that spirit.”

So while Boone grew up singing and playing piano and trumpet—and listening to the country radio station in his hometown—music was one of his many hobbies, rather than his vocation, as he embarked upon the years of school to earn a doctorate in clinical psychology. (That said, he didn’t turn down the opportunity to improve his hand-to-mouth grad-school existence by singing at weddings.)

So years later, emotionally fatigued by years of counseling, Cooper entertained the thought of doing music full time. “A jazz pianist buddy of mine asked me what I really wanted to do,” Boone recalls. “And I kinda blurted out ‘write and perform country music,’ I’ve always loved the genre, It speaks to me. I’m a country boy at heart; it’s in my blood. So he gave me the assignment to write a country song. I asked, ‘how do you do that?’ He said, ‘you’re a smart man—just study the music you love.’ And so I wrote a tune and he thought it was pretty good, which shocked me.”

It’s not surprising that Boone would have an early knack for songwriting. Not only did he have years of musical seasoning by the point he began, he’d also heard story after story from his clients. Finally, being in New York during 9/11, he’d been through an emotional firestorm in his work.

“I’ve listened to a ton of stories in my life,” he says. “Those stories sit on my soul and I access them in different ways in my music all the time. It’s a real privilege to be involved in someone’s inner world in that way. And on some level, songs are a way to work out sitting with those stories. I’m not talking about this stuff to a shrink; I’m writing music. That’s my way.”

One thing led to another and soon the pianist friend hooked up the singer with Anthony Krizan, a former lead guitarist of the Spin Doctors, who in turn introduced Boone to mentor Mark D. Conklin. Eventually Conklin would produce Boone’s album and introduce him to the Nashville songwriting community and opportunities to co-write with Music Row’s finest.

“I’m shaking in my drawers when I’ve gone into those sessions,” Boone admits. “It’s very intimidating. Like anything, the more exposure you have to it, the less anxiety you have about it. You have to dare to suck.”

Daring though it may have been for Boone, the results have been great, with upbeat crowd-pleasers like “She’s All That” sitting comfortably alongside personal, heartfelt fare like “Celia’s Hands,” Coop’s homage to his grandmother. “That song is the closest to my heart because she believed in me more than anyone else. She’s passed on, but she’s very much alive in my life, and alive in the song.”

Throughout the album, Boone mines his life for inspiration, with “Sizzle” paying homage to a crushworthy childhood choir director and “Mending Fences” about “wanting to rectify errors and make some amends.” Even “Cougar Dream,” an irresistible hook-fest delivered with more than a pinch of humor, has roots in Boone’s life. “Cougar Dream was inspired from a lot of older women I’ve met in my work feeling invisible, with all these hot young things out there,” Boone explains. “I wanted to write an upbeat song that honors those hot mamas out there who aren’t 22 but are still out there living lives and looking great.”

The album’s centerpiece, “Yes!” is a song that could double as Cooper Boone’s creed, with its subject the need to open up to life’s possibilities. “I’m really practicing what I preach to my counseling clients, where I encourage people to take risks and pursue happiness,” Boone observes. “Often that requires you to take leaps in new directions. And this is just me living my word. It’s about having courage to go for what you want in life. So I’m doing that as best as I can. And I sure hope that when I’m 75 years old and have a few teeth left that I’m still discovering new adventures.”