Phil cook on world cafe4/8/2023 I learned more on those little fishin’ trips … stuff she would tell me from growin’ up. It was good times.” “We’d go out fishing, and I’d paddle her around in the boat, bait her hook for her. “Growing up, I was basically a human trolling motor for my grandma,” recalls Jep Robertson, Phil and Miss Kay’s youngest son, who appeared on Duck Dynasty along with his brothers Willie, Alan, and Jase. Instead, it can be traced back further to Phil’s late mother Merritt, known by the family as “Granny” or “Ma.” Merritt helped her husband James raise Phil and his six siblings in northwest Louisiana off vegetables they grew, fish they caught, and meat they harvested. Later, she and James lived next door to Phil and his family in West Monroe. The Robertsons’ love of down-home cooking doesn’t start and end with Miss Kay, though. Indeed, the show often ended with the extended family gathered for fellowship around the table enjoying one of “Miss Kay’s” home-cooked meals. Cooking Homemade Meals with Duck Dynasty’s Robertson Familyįor the Duck Dynasty clan, big, homemade meals featuring freshly caught fish and meat they bagged themselves are a family tradition.įans of Duck Dynasty, the reality TV series on A&E that focused on the rural Christian family values of Kay and Phil Robertson’s family, know that food and cooking are all-important to the West Monroe, Louisiana, clan. He’s got natural soul.PHOTO COURTESY OF JON GIMBER: Jon Gimber, pictured here with Alex Robertson Mancuso, is general manager of Miss Kay’s Sweets & Eats in West Monroe. It’s easy to see why Cook is looked to as both a leader and collaborator. Besides Staples and the BBA, he has collaborated with Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls. Additionally, Cook has his hands in several projects, including the psych-folk band Megafaun, and as a recording and touring member of Hiss Golden Messenger. His first solo effort, Hungry Mother Blues, was a low-key solo instrumental album based on Cook’s love for music of the Delta, Appalachia, and Bayou. If Cook is a new name for you, note that he previously authored the widely acclaimed solo album, Southland Mission. It’s delivered honestly, emotionally, and above all spiritually, tracing to Cook’s work with Mavis Staples and as Musical Director for The Blind Boys of Alabama. The album was recorded in Cook’s home state of Wisconsin and recently adopted home state of North Carolina in a mere ten days. Cook wrote or co-wrote four the ten, collaborating with Meath (Sylvan Esso) on “Miles Away.” Of the other six, he notably covers Randy Newman’s “He Gives Us All His Love” and Allen Toussaint’s “Life,” using Richmond’s NO BS! Brass Band to give it the proper NOLA treatment. Besides Waden and Brown, Amelia Meath, Molly Sable, and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig add backgrounds. The array of female voices often sounds like a choir with several tracks featuring as many as four or five of them. Cook dubbed his band the Guitarheels, comprised of drummer JT Bates, bassist Michael Libramento, and pianist James Wallace. The communal spirit of the album is apparent in the sound before you learn that his brother Brad Cook is the producer. Within my mortal body and experience, this music is my church.’’ The payoff when Mountain Man enter at the end of the double-time chant makes me cheer every time. Tamisha Waden and Chastity Brown’s vocal expressions are stunning. Lyrically, it’s playful in a way I can get behind. The left-right bass lines get my feet stepping, whereas the drums channel by hip movements and weightless carefree melodies often coax my arms from my side to the sky. The informality proves engaging for Phil Cook’s People Are My Drug, a work that taps into Cook’s affection for NOLA rhythms and his drawing together many voices.Ībout the moving opening track, “Steampowered Blues,” Cook comments, “I’ve long been drawn to the swing and swagger of New Orleans’ step rhythms. Phil Cook delivers the kind of informal gospel-flavored album you could easily associate with a southern church or simply a bunch of friends singing on a back porch.
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