Scott Cooley Records Announces Availability of New Album "Lockdown Leftovers" from Solo Artist Scott Cooley

The 11th studio record from recording artist Scott Cooley features 13 new original songs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Contact: Scott Cooley (810) 820-0953 scottcooley@scottcooley.com

Grand Blanc, Michigan - June 21st, 2022 - Today at the album release party event, Scott Cooley Records announced the immediate availability of "Lockdown Leftovers," enabling owners of Scott Cooley's back catalog of 10 previously-released studio albums to immediately upgrade their collections with the latest release.

"This is a well-deserved bonus album for my patient and loyal fanbase" said the artist himself, CEO at Scott Cooley Records.  Scott is best known in the midwest for songs that contain lyrical subject matter about the region as well as several songs about two of his favorite pastimes, sailing and skiing.

As with his past records, this one includes a baker's dozen new original songs Scott wrote and recorded himself at Scott Cooley Music Productions (his home studio) in Grand Blanc, Michigan.  The shortest song is 2 minutes 26 seconds long, the longest is over 6 minutes in duration, while most fall in-between the 3 and 4 minute range.

The subject matter includes relatable things most of us have experienced:  a renewed focus on what's important in life, realization of our time being fragile and fleeting, the simple pleasures in life, enjoyment of increased togetherness while locked down or working remotely, the struggles of communication and maintaining relationships, money challenges, cancelled events, nostalgia, history, addiction, and of course, a Scott Cooley album wouldn't be complete without covering the topics of love found and love lost.

Many fans have already benefited from pre-release music and video streaming, a clear indicator of their readiness for new material.

"Lockdown Leftovers" is a welcome surprise addition, particularly since it is the first new release in over 2 years and another album wasn't previously planned to be released until 2024.  Due to a distribution mistake, Scott's last album, Bluebird Days II had been scheduled for release this year, but was released early.  

Fans had come to expect the consistency of an every-two-years release in even-numbered years, but Scott experienced periods of unemployment between 2019-2020 that allowed him to write and record more songs than usual, which allowed for this "extra" unexpected release.  

The title of the album describes the motivation behind the album in that the songs were left over from writing and recording them during lockdown due to the Coronavirus, which is referenced in one of the song's lyrics.  Another of its songs expresses the positive aspects of extra togetherness experienced with his immediate family during this time, and as with his past releases, love and relationships are a prominent theme throughout.  

Scott's method of writing, playing and recording didn't change from his last album project to this one, so the "signature" sound and song quality fans have come to expect is there for fulfillment.  In fact some songs he might normally have weeded out, did in fact make the cut this time.  

Part of the easing of standards is due to the pandemic making people realize their mortality, which has made him just want people to be able to hear his songs, whether they're carefully curated or not, since our remaining time is more precious than ever.

"Even though I had more time for this album, I still followed my typical process of just getting a song as close to how I originally envisioned it when writing it as possible, then not wasting too much time trying to make each song perfect during the recording process.  It stays more fresh and sounds less labored this way, even if a few imperfections remain.  

If anything, I actually lowered the bar for what I considered release-worthy this time around.  If it was close to sounding like an actual song, and there weren't too many glaring errors or major mistakes, I called it good and moved on. I'm reminded of a t-shirt I saw that said 'don't die with the music in you' or in other words, don't be afraid to release away, whether it's your best ever batch of new songs or not."

More of a non-performing songwriter than a gigging or touring solo artist, there is little press coverage of Scott's music, aside from his own press releases such as this one.  As such, there are not many quotable reviews of his new or past music available online, but Scott likes it that way.  Preferring to stay out of any sort of public spotlight, Scott merely announces that his new music is available, then hopes for the best.  

Without a desire for celebrity or fame of any kind, he still has a hope that his steadily-increasing fanbase will continue to grow on its own without promotion, marketing or advertising of any kind.  Although unusual for a recording artist, Scott is satisfied just knowing the songs he writes and records are available to be discovered.  How much discovery will happen, and how much organic recommendation will happen, remains to be seen.  

At a time when live music performances are few and far between, and when people stay home more than ever, people are increasingly finding new music and new artists they like online in their homes and sharing it with each other online, so the chances are better than ever for an artist like Scott to enjoy increasing streaming activity.

Perhaps best described as Americana, it features the acoustic rock Scott is known for, with norteno, holiday, country, pop, folk, and even a bluegrass song that marks Scott's first foray into playing mandolin.  The ever-present acoustic guitar is still Scott's main instrument, but piano, electric piano and organ can also be heard, with most songs also including acoustic bass guitar and light, sparse drums and percussion.  

Also notable is that it contains Scott's first Christmas song he wrote as an entry into a holiday songwriting contest, and another written in association with the Sing Me A Story Foundation in which Scott turned a child's written story into a song for the benefit of Gilda's Club- a charity for children with cancer started in Detroit by Gilda Radner of Saturday Nigh Live fame.  

Likely one of the most intriguing things about this album to fans is the fact that it includes a song on which Scott's lovely wife Lenore is a guest accordion player because the previously-released songs she has played accordion on are fan favorites.

This album is being distributed internationally to more countries and outlets than ever before.  There are no CDs available to purchase this time due to a lack of demand, and Scott has yet to venture into vinyl (maybe someday), but the links are in, and are now active in your favorite places to get music on the world wide web.

This album is available on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, and Pandora, to name of few of the many music services that offer it.  Accompanying the release are several music videos created and produced by Scott as well that you can find on his official YouTube channel.  Happy streaming!

Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/album/6Tp515a1vnkPNcIYT9nB5w

Apple Music:  https://music.apple.com/us/album/lockdown-leftovers/1630698580

Amazon Music:  https://music.amazon.com/albums/B0B3Z1BL2L

Pandora:  https://www.pandora.com/artist/scott-cooley/lockdown-leftovers/ALK9b4lmwqkrh7m

YouTube Music:  https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mvJHkwdXzy_XgcNJNb6zChSYhyPHEb9QQ

For more details, visit https://www.scottcooley.com/albums/lockdown-leftovers.

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My New Album "Lockdown Leftovers" Will Be Available Soon

 

Here's to hoping you're like me:  you somehow start getting into an artist, and you're excited when you hear they have new music coming out.

It takes a lot to make the leap into trying out something new, and particularly the older you get, because you tend to like what you like, and don't feel like you have room in your life to start getting into music you're not already familiar with somehow.

Sometimes people recommending music to you makes you want to check it out even less.  Sometimes you need something more to push you over the edge.  You have to like their image, or what they're all about.

For example, someone suggested Ryan Adams to me long ago, and I couldn't get past my first impression that he was "that jean jacket guy with the hair in his face."  I also heard he was one of those #metoo hashtag guys who had supposedly mistreated a girlfriend or wife.  

The combination of those made me way less likely to try out his music, but I finally got around to it, and I can confirm, the guy is a good artist, good songwriter, has a lot of good music out there to discover.

I don't have much of an image, but I don't have any bad press either.  I'm a good person, doggone it, and people like me.  ...and I have some good music out there, and I hope you've discovered it, and hope you'll be interested to hear there's more on the way.

It's even more elusive to get someone interested in a musician they know nothing about, haven't ever even heard of, and then with nothing to go on, mention they have a new release, and then by the way, the musician himself says it's not his best stuff, but you should check it out anyway.  Great sales pitch, I know, but such is the case.  Chances are you're not one of the imaginary readers, you're real, and you already know something about me already or you wouldn't be here reading this, so that should help.

June 21st, my birthday, is when you can listen to it on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora, and well, let's face it, you will only be using one of those services, not the millions of others out there, although my new album will be there too.  No links to share yet, just a "be on the lookout for it" heads up at this point.

I can tell you it will contain 13 new original songs I wrote and recorded in my home studio.  I also made an album cover:

You might like some of it, you might not.  Probably not.  If you even get to the point of finding it three days from now, you'll probably hit play on track #1, then tell yourself "nope" and then out of impatience, go listen to Ryan Adams or The Beatles or Journey or whatever instead.  Patience is hard.

Another album release announcement means needing to do more than just tell the world I'm putting more music into it.  I'm faced with telling people why they should be interested in such news.  Putting lipstick on a pig, as they say.

It's not very enticing to caution or warn people you're about to release some substandard music they might want to listen to.  Not very smart either, one might argue.  On the other hand, it is what it is, and at least I'm being honest.  When you write and record new songs, you think they're all better than they end up being, in your own opinion, after a cooling off period.

The real me would announce it the way I just did to my friend via email, which I've now deleted, but it went something like this:

"During periods of unemployment between 2019-2021, I wrote and recorded more songs than usual because of the extra free time, so I'm releasing a new album.  They wouldn't normally make the cut of my weeding out process, but the criteria this time was just that they sound close to being actual songs, without too many glaring errors or major mistakes.  I'm at the age, and we're in an age, when you never know if you might get the Corona and die, and you just want to know you got the songs out so people could potentially find them, maybe listen to them, and possibly enjoy them, whether any of that happens or not.  Both the song quality and sound quality are not up to my usual standards, but I'm doing it anyway."

In other words, just being brutally honest, no sugar-coating.  The more fake me needs to put on a marketing hat and make it compelling somehow.  It just so happens that I'm now used to the fact that there are no gatekeepers anymore in the music industry.  I forget how lucky I am that my hobby is one in which people who really have no business ever trying to sell what they create can try to anyway.  So much music in the world, how to get people to try mine, what does it all mean?

To me, it means I know I'm not good at music, but I do it anyway, and I can choose to keep it to myself, or share it with the world, and I choose the latter.  Does that make me brave or stupid?  I've wondered about that, and am unsure.  I've googled this kind of thing for reassurance, and here's some things I've found I should probably quote people on, but won't.

Heard it said:

• If you can do it for joy, you can do it forever
• Happiness lies in the thrill of creative effort
• A man is a success if he does what he wants to do
• Do what you love, and you will find the way to get it out to the world
• The judgment of music, like the inspiration for it, must come slow and measured, if it comes with truth
• The road of life is rocky and you may stumble too, so while you judge me, someone else is judging you
• It's good to be bad at things you enjoy
• You don't need to master something to enjoy it
• It's perfectly fine to suck at something and keep doing it anyway
• Being good at things is not the point of doing them
• Being bad at something makes you an interesting person
• To not excel at something helps shatter the notion that any pursuit must be a means to achievement
• We are intimidated by the expectation that we must actually be skilled at what we do in our free time
• Creating for the sake of creation, writing for the sake of writing, and trying for the sake of trying, is all invaluable grist for the spiritual mill
• It's good to be mediocre at something you care about because it shows your commitment to enjoyment, and an understanding that you deserve the flexibility to go easy on yourself
• The motivation underlying anyone's pursuit of a hobby is curiosity and the possibility of gleaning pleasure
• If you truly derive pleasure from something, being good at it won't make a difference either way
• If you enjoy doing something, it shouldn't matter what people think
• There's a lot of joy to be found in doing things just for kicks
• You'll find joy in embracing your willingness to be bad
• The recipe for success is curiosity, kindness, stamina, and a willingness to look stupid
• People will be inspired by you even if you don't crush it
• Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly
• Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm

There there self, I feel better now.  It's about building momentum, creating a buzz.  I dread this aspect of it, but at the very least, one must let people know the music exists, or will soon exist, and therefore, this post.  About all I can muster is a post like this for now.  Alright, so the next post I have planned will be the "official" version of this informal announcement, in which I will represent myself and my new album in the most favorable light in more of a press release format.  Until then, you've been warned.

Another Bluebird Day - the return of the sequel that mistakenly became a prequel

I've finally made my album, Bluebird Days II, available for free streaming on Bandcamp, because why not?  It was a long wait, I realize, but some online places to get music list the official release date of June 21st 2022 (my birthday), even though advance listening has been available since late 2019.  I thought it was worthy of yet another announcement and explanation, though the astute readers already know I've covered this topic previously.  Patience can be a rewarding challenge.

So...

I mean...

First of all, I would like to thank Gah-It, my personal higher power.

It's a blessing, I've been blessed, it's a blessed day...

...and it's a bluebird day!...again.

I'll get to a point eventually, like the beak of a bluebird, and if you're a returning reader you know I'm long-winded and weird, which is why blogging is ideal for someone like me.

I am like the bluebird:  It's an American songbird (so am I because I am also an American, and I write songs and sing them), the male of which has a blue head, back and wings (I am also male, and I've been blue in the face before and I've certainly had my share of the blues).

What makes be extremely lucky though, is the fact that I've also had my share of glorious bluebird days.

The Apple dictionary defines it as an adjective:

"denoting or relating to a period of time characterized by sunny, cloudless weather, typically after a night of snowfall: on beautiful bluebird days the girls rode snowmobiles | a week of bluebird skies | it's bluebird, but 50-mile-per-hour winds have closed the gondola."

Speaking of Apple, I got a recent report from Apple Music that my "play" count for their streaming service has dipped to an all-time low - a clear indicator that you are ready for new music from me.

When bluebird became an adjective to describe such a day is unclear, and back when I experienced a lot of them, it wasn't in use.

The reason I chose it for titles of two of my studio albums I released is that I love the idea of experiencing "bluebird days" and I have fond memories of them.   

I lived and worked at a ski area in Colorado in the early 90s and I got to experience powder skiing on sunny days after it had snowed a lot the night before many, many times.  There's nothing like it, and I really do feel blessed to have had that experience.

I noticed I had a batch of songs that were either about skiing on bluebird days, about birds and/or flying, or about the color blue or having the blues, so the album title made sense.  

When I realized I had somewhat of a theme going, it spurred me on to write a few more that fit it, and the next thing I knew was I had enough songs for two albums.  Here's where my good fortune ran out.

This occurred in late 2019, and my release schedule called for a new album in June 2020.  I learned that my music distribution service offered the ability to upload all the songs and then specify a release date in the future.  So, of course I thought I'd take advantage of that, get my two "in the can" albums uploaded and have one go out in June 2020, and the next one go out in June 2022.  

I once read in some music magazine that Ozzy Ozbourne recorded his Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman solo albums all in one big session around 1979 after he was kicked out of Black Sabbath.  So, he had "two in the can" thing and his record company waited to release them a couple years apart. I'm not sure if I'm remembering it correctly or if that was really true, but I thought it was cool to know your next album is already done.

The service said I could do it, the software let me do it, so all was good.  I could take my time and not have to have a new batch of songs ready until June 2024 for the album after these two.  (The schedule I'm referring to is that I typically release a new album of a baker's dozen new songs every two years, in even numbered years, on my birthday in June). Life was good, or so I thought.

There was some sort of mistake the service later struggled to explain that resulted in them releasing the second one first, and in late 2019 when I submitted it, and the first one second, on the scheduled June 2020.  They aplogized and gave me credit for a free album release, but it bummed me out and made me feel blue.

This meant that after June 2020, there would theoretically be no new album of music from artist Scott Cooley until June 2024 - a long time to wait for those used to the expectation I had created with the release schedule commitment.  The official release date, which is still in the "metadata" shows June 2022, even though the Bluebird Days II album has been available since late 2019.

I guess soon, on June 21st, it will be official that it is at least what I consider officially released anyway.  All that being said, it still means the fanbase hasn't heard any new material from me for two years.  Because of this, and also because the streaming stats are understandably down from such a layoff, I wanted to let you know I'm planning an additional release this year - a bonus album, if you will - even though it violates the already-violated release schedule.  You deserve it.  Check back within the coming weeks for confirmation and details.

Rest Assured, There's A New Scott Cooley Album This Year To Put Under Your Tree

Dear Everyone,

Just in time for the holiday season, I've got a great gift idea for you!

Six months ago I released a new album of original songs on CD and digital you can buy from Amazon, Google Play, Apple Music, etc., and forgot to blog about it!  So, here it is Christmas present shopping season and I thought I should do that now while I think of it.  Might as well blog about it, just in case you want to consider it for a stocking stuffer for a music fan in your life.  It's called "Rest Assured" and it's the 7th full-length record I've self-released on the independent Scott Cooley Records label, and it contains 13 songs.

It was made available in stores on the usual release date - my birthday, which is June 21st.  Also as usual, I produced it, arranged it, wrote all the songs, sang all the vocals, played all the instruments, recorded it, mixed it, mastered it, took the cover photo, designed the artwork, wrote the liner notes, etc., except...my lovely wife Lenore was once again a guest studio musician appearing courtesy of herself on two songs as an accordion player.

So, you can get it now in time for Christmas, and here are some handy links:

• Buy the Rest Assured CD from Amazon right now & get it shipped to you in time!
• Buy the Rest Assured MP3 album from Google Play Music rightnow & have it immediately!
• Buy the Rest Assured MP3 album from Apple Music / iTunes right now & have it immediately!
• Buy the Rest Assured album in any digital format (FLAC,OggVorbis, etc.) from Bandcamp immediately!
• Buy the Rest Assured MP3 album from Spotify right now &have it immediately!

Here's what it looks like:

Here's a link to the press release:

• http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=c2NvdHRjb29sZXkuY29tfHNjb3R0LWNvb2xleS13ZWItc2l0ZXxneDo3OThiNTllMmE5Njc1NmMy

Here's a link to the album page of scottcooley.com that has the full artwork, track listing, liner notes and details:

• http://www.scottcooley.com/albums/rest-assured/

The person you buy it for will probably love it, and love you even more for giving it to them!

Merry Christmas,

Scott