Loading details…
Artist
Joanna Cotten
12+ albums
countrysxsw 2008
about
A sultry slide guitar, the lonely moan of a blues harp, the righteous thump of a fatback bass and the sticky soulful rhythm of a Beale Street backbeat … within the first few bars of the first song on High Maintenance, her stunning debut release, Joanna Cotten lays it all out like a slow ride down through the delta. Then she starts to sing, and all heaven breaks loose. She calls her music "Funkabilly," and the appellation fits just right, serving as both the title of her album's leadoff track and as a dead-on description of Cotten's undeniable artistry – a heart-stopping mix of God-given talent, flawless technique, and deep-down southern soul that adds up to the most potent, pure-country voice to come out of Nashville in a long, long time. By the time the song fades to a raucous, gospel-drenched finale it's crystal clear – this girl was born to sing. "I have to sing for people, that's just the way it is," Cotten says, setting her long blond hair in motion with a shake of her head. "It's like a beast inside of me that has to come out, and it's been that way since I was a baby girl." Born in Memphis and raised in the "one-Burger-King town" of Forrest City, Arkansas, Cotten was pulling on her mother's skirt as a 4-year-old, saying, "Mama, when I grow up, I'm gonna be a country singer." Driven to distraction by her daughter's persistence, Cotten's mom finally relented. "She said 'If you're serious, I want to do this right,'" the singer recalls. "She took me to this lady named
