A country way of life, Episode 24 (Dave Cohen, Lauren Hungate, Jessie Jo Dillon)
Author: Jonny Brick.
Player: Dave Cohen
Unless you are a member of the E Street Band, musicians who back a major star do not get much respect or name recognition from the casual fan. This is in spite of them being on the same tour bus, playing the same soundchecks and walking out to the same fanatical crowd of thousands.
On July 4 2024, it won’t just be Morgan Wallen, whose face is on the poster, who plays Hyde Park. His live band might include Dave Cohen, his usual keyboard player, who was given a co-production credit on Wallen’s interpretation of the Jason Isbell standard Cover Me Up.
Cohen is another country musician who made the voyage down to Nashville from Canada: born in Toronto, he didn’t grow up with country music in the house but was introduced to it by a girlfriend and was especially drawn to the sound of the Hammond B3 organ.
He went out on the road with Joe Nichols before retreating to the studio as a session player, contributing to tracks by Cole Swindell, Jon Pardi, Jake Owen, Kip Moore, Carrie Underwood, Dustin Lynch, Luke Combs and Will Hoge.
Cohen told the Ten Year Town podcast that his goal as a session player was to be ‘as busy as possible, three sessions a day, six or seven days a week’ even if some of it was ‘lame stuff’ where the singer’s dad was paying for studio time!
Having fallen in with the label Big Loud and their superproducer Joey Moi, Cohen is credited as co-producer on Hardy’s early EPs. Having learned the Joey Moi method, he put it into practice with the label’s Canadian acts Dallas Smith and MacKenzie Porter, as well as breakthrough country stars Post Malone and Shaboozey; he has two writing credits on the latter’s recent album.
Songwriters: Lauren Hungate & Jessie Jo Dillon
When Lauren Watkins included the song Gatlinburg on her debut album, she seemed to be making a point: all six of the song’s writers were women. Two of those six have stayed in the backroom to help write hits for a number of current female stars.
Born in Nashville, Lauren Hungate has written songs for several young stars: MacKenzie Porter, Lily Rose, Anne Wilson, Ashland Craft and Bailey Zimmerman, whose song Holy Smokes she co-wrote. Lauren has two cuts on Carly Pearce’s recent album Hummingbird: My Place and Women to Women. She shrewdly told one interviewer that writing songs is ‘the easiest and hardest job in the world’.
Jessie Jo Dillon has adopted the professional moniker of her dad Dean, who was born Larry Dean Flynn, and has followed him into the family business. Her first cut was The Breath You Take, written with her dad for George Strait.
Like Dean, Jessie Jo has also shied away from the limelight, preferring the writer’s room to the studio microphone. She has been a key part of crafting the Brandy Clark sound, co-writing I’ll Be The Sad Song, Buried, Girl Next Door and Daughter.
Her copyrights include: 10,000 Hours, the crossover smash for Justin Bieber and Dan + Shay; Halfway to Hell for Jelly Roll; Break Up in the End for Cole Swindell, on which Dave Cohen played the piano; Rich for Maren Morris; and Memory Lane and Here On Earth, respectively the title tracks of albums by Old Dominion and Tim McGraw.
Jessie Jo told Songfacts: ‘I have no ego in a writing room. I leave that to the guys to sort out!’
All Episodes can be found here
For more country music evangelism, go to countrywol.com where you can read Monday essays, Friday reviews and Sunday Hymn Sheets. Follow Jonny’s Country Music Calendar at the Country Way of Life Facebook page (facebook.com/acountrywayoflife).