By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
He calls himself a troubadour, which reflects the life he has lived, a life of writing lyrics, traveling, and singing for an audience wherever the trail takes him. His travels will bring him to Galveston’s Old Quarter Acoustic Café on Saturday May 25.
Danna Cooper has been singing and writing songs for over 50 years and is celebrating his latest album, “The Ghost of Tucumcari” with an album release tour that includes a live performance in Galveston.
This won’t be his first show at Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe. He has performed for audiences at the Galveston music venue several times during his musical career. He has also been a favorite at Austin City Limits.
In the 1970’s, Cooper was living in Los Angeles and landed a record deal with Elektra Records and his first-self-titled album was released in 1972. Since then, he has amassed a catalog of 30+ albums.
Cooper is originally from Missouri. He lived for a spell in Houston. Now when he’s not on the road singing for an audience, he resides in Tennessee with his wife of 45 years.
In a relaxed, even voice that holds a slight tinge of the rural parts of our nation, Cooper speaks about his early life and his life as a musician.
“My dad was heavily into country and western music. He took me to see Ernest Tubb,” Cooper shared. “We lived on a little farm, and we rode in a caboose on a freight train into Kansas City. My dad carried me the whole way. We went from the train to a bus to get to the concert. That really put the light into my eyes. My father went to that effort to take his three-year-old kid first on a train then a bus to hear a concert. The memory of Ernest Tubb up on that stage is a vivid memory.”
Writing and playing music took him to Los Angeles, where he took on odd jobs so he could pursue his dream.
“I was always prepared to get a job,” Cooper said. “I drove cabs, drove for pathology labs worked as a waiter and nurses’ aid. They (these jobs) were always temporary things to get me by till I could make a living playing music. It was a simple life as a young musician, not a life of luxury.”
At one point Cooper thought he’d turn from his life as a musician and go to college.
“I come from a family of farmers, and so I thought maybe I’d like to study horticulture,” Cooper shared. “I even thought maybe I’d be a park ranger.”
But writing and singing called him back, and he has no regrets. Today he enjoys tending to his garden at home in Tennessee when he isn’t on the road.
“I love mowing grass, and I’ve planted a lot of plants,” Cooper shared. “I love feeling connected to the earth. I can get lost out in the garden, sometimes it’s where I come up with song ideas.”
He remembers that in his early Nashville years, he was told by people in the industry he ought to pick one or the other, be a singer or a song writer, but he shouldn’t try to do both.
Nevertheless, he didn’t let the early naysayers keep him from pursuing his heart’s desire to be both a writer and performer.
“Performing is just a high,” Cooper explained. “It really transports me and connects me to people. It just feels so darn good. Singing for others is just a spiritual ecstasy.”
These days, as he travels about performing and carrying on with all the work of being a professional musician, which includes at least three hours a day of administrative tasks and marketing, he finds the best time to write lyrics is at the end of his busy days.
Cooper counts it as a blessing that his musical endeavors have allowed him to hire a manager who has taken over many aspects of the business of music.
As he sets out for a road tour, he packs his car with his personal items and what he needs when he performs. Items necessary for his performances include a sound system, a couple guitars and two trunks with merchandise for sale.
For each gig, he unloads his car and sets up the stage, eager once again to sing for a live audience.
The scope of his 50 years of music ranges from country to folk music and even some rock influences. Americana is what he feels his music has evolved into.
“I’ve always listened to all types of music,” Cooper said. “One of the difficulties in life has been defining which genre I’m in. I’m an eclectic listener, and the Americana banner waves over what I’m doing these days.”
His new release, “The Ghost of Tucumcari” is a compilation of songs that gently rock the listener into thinking a little bit deeper about how each one of us relates to each other. He gets listeners thinking through his employment of metaphors and some direct questioning conveyed in the lyrics.
Some of the songs on the album are a ride through his own heart and soul as he sings about life from the perspective of one who has lived for many years.
Cooper captures the dry dustiness of a small New Mexico town along Route 66 in his title song, “The Ghost of Tucumcari.” He also effectively creates a sense of eeriness as he paints with his voice and lyrics the troubles that lead to the ghost of Tucumcari’s existence.
With his relaxed singing style, he invites the listener to find a place to rest from their own uncertainties and to be soothed by his voice and the voices of the other singers who joined him on this album.
Working with other musicians on this album presented challenges, yet the collaboration was important to his vision for the project.
“I invited other singers to be part of this album as a tribute to the history and friendship I’ve had with these artists,” Cooper said. “It was a lot of work, but the timing of it fell into place.”
Teaming with him as vocalists on “The Ghost of Tucumcari” are Hayes Carll, Susan Gibson, Libby Koch, Lyle Lovett, Shake Russell, Mando Saenz, Darden Smith, David Starr, and Gillian Tuite.
If you would like to attend his performance on May 25, you can reach out for tickets at https://www.prekindle.com/event/22242-dana-cooper-galveston
If you would like to learn more about his latest album and get a copy of it for yourself, visit https://www.danacoopermusic.com
