“They Cut The Hell Out Of It” – Brent Cobb On The Steel Woods Recording His Song, “Better In The Fall”
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“They Cut The Hell Out Of It” – Brent Cobb On The Steel Woods Recording His Song, “Better In The Fall”

Writing songs for one of his best friends. Brent Cobb is one of the most talented songwriters in country music. Aside from being a phenomenal artist, Cobb shines when putting pen to paper and has written some heaters throughout his career. Last fall, Cobb shared with Whiskey Riff that his songwriting process is unlike most artists' and that he tends to come up with the melody first. "I'll let my emotion bring up a melody and I'll try and just let it naturally happen. That might be a whistle or might humming something. Then, once the melody happens, I'll pick up the guitar and try and find some chords to go around it. And then I try and pay attention to whatever that subconscious emotion that the melody is bringing up, and then I try and fit words and syllables to that melody like a puzzle..." Cobb has penned profound songs like "Patina," "Black Creek," "Shine On Rainy Day," and his most recent single, "Snakebite." But while he has written an expansive catalog on his own, his work with the Steel Woods' founder, the late, great Jason "Rowdy" Cope, is pure country gold. When Cobb penned "Let The Rain Comes Down," Cobb told Whiskey Riff that Whiskey Myers initially wanted to cut it, but his friend Rowdy had asked him to hold it for The Steel Woods. That single would later go on to be one of their biggest hits. "I recorded a version of it, and then they recorded a version of it, and then Whiskey Myers, they wanted to record a version of it…they’re our buddies, you know.  But I remember Rowdy hitting me up, and he was like, “Hey man, I heard Whiskey Myers wanted to record a version of ‘Let The Rain Come Down.' He was like, ‘Don’t let them have it…it’s going to be a big song for us.'” But that was not the only time Cobb and Cope created magic. On a recent sit-down with The Watering Hole Podcast, Brent Cobb told the hosts, Rhett and Jager, about how "Better In The Fall" came to be. "Yeah, I wrote that song sitting on my parents' front porch. I'd been out to L.A. already; this was probably 2006 or 2007, and I had made that first album. Me and Rowdy, Jason Cope, who is the founder of The Steel Woods, he was already planning a band, already The Steel Woods. He didn't have a name for it yet, but he was already building that thing. Rowdy was a profound influence on my writing. He was like my older brother, you know? Not just musically but as a person. I was sort of writing it with those chord changes in a way that I would think, 'Well Rowdy would like this.' When Rowdy and them, when he finally got that band put together, and he met Wes and he had the band put together, he was looking for songs. He had studio time saved up at Blackbird, and he called me up and was like, 'Alright, I'm pulling the trigger on all of this. You got any songs?' And that was one of the ones I sent; man, they cut the hell out of it." While Jason Cope is sadly no longer with us on this earth, his legacy lives on through The Steel Woods' music, and his presence was there each night the group graced a stage. Although The Steel Woods recently played their last show at The Ryman, Rowdy and Brent Cobb's magic will be enjoyed beyond their touring days. Check out the entire episode while you're here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o89_B-99tpg