TMN STAFF<\/p>\n
Born a military kid in the Lone Star state of Texas, Cox spent a lot of his life moving around, putting down and pulling up stakes in Omaha, NE, Washington, DC, and, around his middle school days, Orlando, FL, where he spent 17 years and pledged his undying allegiance to the city\u2019s NBA team, the Magic. \u201cOh man, I think it\u2019s a beautiful game,\u201d he gushes about his beloved basketball. \u201cSports helps me a lot with learning to work with other people, how to push through difficult things, not giving up, not throwing in the towel just because it\u2019s difficult, and realizing there\u2019s always an opportunity for a comeback; there\u2019s always an opportunity to nail a buzzer-beater in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
It might seem incongruous that the most intimate songs that flow from the heart and pen of a skilled songwriter are also sometimes the most deeply relatable to many who hear said songs, but that is the sonic sweet spot in which Kyle Cox practices his craft.<\/p>\n
\u201cImmediately, from the first time I sat down with them, it seemed to click,\u201d says Cox of the determining factor that sparked the flame that fueled his decision to make Rock Ridge Music his home \u2013 his musical sanctuary. \u201cThey seemed to understand who I was as an artist. They appreciated the blue collar aspect of my touring, my hard work and hit-the-pavement-running work ethic. It was just cool all around.\u201d On Trio and Friends<\/em>, the comfortable artist-label relationship and aural rubber immediately meets the road with the opening track, ties-that-bind, tale \u201cTrusty Ol\u2019 Pair of Boots,\u201d in which Cox sings, \u201cBuilt to last and never fall apart\/only fits better over time<\/em>,\u201d referring to his closest and most trusted partner in life. \u201cThe whole song is about my wife and the idea of marriage in general,\u201d he vows. \u201cThe first verse is about the warm feeling love can give you and the ability to brighten up your day, or to keep you warm and safe or protect you, like a nice pair of boots can do.\u201d<\/p>\n Cox\u2019s uncanny ability to connect with his audience is the bridge that leads his followers over the troubled waters of everyday life, like in the lonesome lullaby \u201cThe One Left Behind.\u201d At first, listen, one can be unsure if the singer is longing for the one who got away for good, or simply missing someone you always want by your side. \u201cThat was a unique song for me to write, \u2019cause I don\u2019t normally write the way I wrote that song,\u201d Cox confesses. \u201cThat song started a little more stream-of-consciousness for me and I don\u2019t necessarily go that route \u2013 I\u2019m a lot more methodical when I write. The chord progression felt very lonely and sad and the words that were starting to come out were very lonely and sad.\u201d<\/p>\n Life \u2013 and the lessons that it teaches us all \u2013 is at the center of every song on Trio and Friends<\/em>. Inspired in part by a character in John Steinbeck\u2019s East of Eden<\/em>, \u201cRichest Man Alive\u201d should seemingly serve as the soundtrack to everyone\u2019s life, in that it hammers home the universal message that the most important things in life are family and friends. \u201cI\u2019ve been married for three-and-a-half years at this point and my wife is amazing. I honestly could not be doing what I\u2019m doing if it wasn\u2019t for her. Her belief and trust in me and what I\u2019m doing has been a huge gift in my life. What I need is actually right in front of me, in my wife and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n Dovetailing on the old adage that behind every great man, there\u2019s a great woman: behind every great album, there\u2019s a great producer. In Cox\u2019s case, his producer, Mike Marsh (drummer of The Avett Brothers), just so happens to be one of his dearest, closest friends. \u201cMike and I have had a really cool relationship,\u201d says Cox of the man who was also behind the making of his 2014 release, The Plan, The Mess<\/em>. \u201cThrough that time, we became super good friends, beyond just a producer-musician relationship. Honestly, I consider Mike a really great friend, well before I consider him a producer.\u201d Mix Marsh\u2019s masterful production work with Cox\u2019s predilection to use a trio configuration in the studio and the result is the bouncy boy-wants-girl-but-she\u2019s-out-of-your\u00a0league saga \u201cJust Outta Reach\u201d and the six-minute masterwork \u201cThe Artist,\u201d the two tunes that round out Trio and Friends<\/em>.<\/p>\n Why a trio? Cox explains, \u201cUltimately I just consider myself a solo singer-songwriter, and this just happens to be the way I\u2019ve dressed up this record. I\u2019ve been a huge fan of John Prine, and I saw him play for the first time about a year or so ago. I was like, \u2018Man, that sounds so cool, so full, but still allows the song to shine,\u2019 so I was really inspired by that. And then I\u2019d been listening to Willie Nelson a whole lot, too, and it seemed the more I listened to those older records, and pay attention to the production, the more that they allow space, they highlight the song. I wanted to pay homage to those who came before me: Willie Nelson, John Prine, Johnny Cash and those guys. So we did a trio, and we actually tracked it live. What you hear on the record is a live, one take of that song.\u201d<\/p>\n Cox has traversed many miles and musical styles before landing in the sweet spot in life he currently finds himself in. He recalls his first musical enlightenment being the first time he discovered his father\u2019s copy of Pink Floyd\u2019s The Dark Side of the Moon<\/em> album when he was about 11 years old. \u201cI especially was drawn to David Gilmour\u2019s guitar playing, and so at the time I was like, \u2018I wanna be a lead guitar player.\u2019\u2019 Later, his uncle introduced him to the aforementioned Prine, which was \u201cthe second (aha) moment where I was just like, \u2018Oh, wow, okay, this is actually what I wanna do.\u201d<\/p>\n Now firmly pledged to the historic fraternity of Nashville songwriters, Kyle Cox has the tools at his disposal to build a solid bridge that leads to a long career. And it all begins and ends with just one thing: the song. When asked to describe the feeling he gets when he finishes writing a song and he can say to himself, \u201cThat\u2019s it! I got it! \u201d Cox doesn\u2019t hesitate for a second to respond, \u201cOh dude, that\u2019s the best feeling in the world. I love it, man!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TMN STAFF Born a military kid in the Lone Star state of Texas, Cox spent a lot of his life moving around, putting down and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1832,3399],"tags":[10017,106,10019,10014,10015,10016,10018],"class_list":["post-27182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kfhs-radio","category-music-reviews","tag-trusty-ol-pair-of-boots","tag-fort-hays-state-university","tag-just-outta-reach","tag-kfhs-radio-new-artist","tag-kyle-cox","tag-kyle-cox-trio-friends","tag-the-one-left-behind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27182"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27186,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27182\/revisions\/27186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}