Marc Cohn a true survivor, in life and in music industry

Neither a carjacking in which he was shot in the head nor spinal surgery has taken away Marc Cohn's ability and desire to sing.

The Cleveland native, now living in New York, won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, thanks to his song "Walking in Memphis," about the city he praises for inspiring him when he visited on a whim.

"I felt that the things I was writing were generic," Cohn says. "And I had had the opportunity to interview James Taylor, and he said he would recommend going to somewhere I'd never been before. So that's what I did, and I found exactly what I'd been looking for -- my songwriting voice.

"I went there and the song is pretty much a literal transcription of my trip."

The song's lyrics include references to W.C. Handy, Beale Street, Elvis, Union Avenue and the Rev. Al Green.

In some respects, Cohn has led a charmed life; in other respects, not so much. His mother died when he was 2 and his father died 10 years later. Cohn had discovered his musical gifts in junior high, when he learned to play guitar and started writing songs. He went on to Oberlin College, where he taught himself to play the piano. He moved to New York and began writing song demos for Jimmy Webb and the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

He even joined a band that landed a gig, playing at Caroline Kennedy's 1986 wedding. Within three years, he was playing piano on Tracy Chapman's second album. Connections were made in the music industry and he met New York guitarist and producer John Leventhal, who is married to Rosanne Cash, daughter of Arkansas' favorite son Johnny Cash.

Leventhal has produced some of Cohn's albums, most recently Cohn's 2010 release Listening Booth, 1970, a collection of songs from the year 1970, which helped him shape his musical focus 45 years ago.

"People had been marking all the things that happened in 1969, which of course was an important year," Cohn says. "But I felt that 1970 was equally historic, with great songs on great albums by Cat Stevens, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, J.J. Cale, Van Morrison and many others. And I had to limit my album to 13 songs."

Cohn has toured as Bonnie Raitt's opening act and contributed to recordings by Rosanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Shawn Colvin, Rodney Crowell and Jackson Browne.

Cohn, 55, became a crime survivor in August 2005 in Denver, after a concert with Suzanne Vega. Though he was struck in the temple by a carjacker's bullet, he was fortunate that the bullet did not penetrate his skull. After overnight hospitalization, Cohn was released.

"I suffered some post-traumatic stress disorder," he says. "I needed to get back on the road as soon as possible, and there are still the occasional nightmares. It was one of those events in life that taught me a lot. Plus it happened right before Hurricane Katrina."

Then in November, Cohn had surgery for a spinal condition, which he thinks might have been a delayed side effect of being shot: "I'm mostly recovered, but it takes time. And I'm anxious to get a new album going."

Cohn reports he will play guitar and piano in his Arkansas show, and will have one accompanist -- Glenn Patscha, a keyboardist, accordion player and singer as well as a member of Ollabelle (a New York band that also includes Amy Helm, daughter of the late Arkansas legend Levon Helm).

Helm became the subject of a Cohn song, "Listening to Levon," the first song on Cohn's 2007 CD Join the Parade. It was five years before Helm died; he enjoyed the song (about how he hadn't heard his girlfriend talking to him because he had been listening to Helm singing) and invited Cohn to Woodstock to perform at one of his Rambles.

"He loved the song, and it made me very happy when he invited me to play at his home," Cohn says. "He was one of our great artists, and a beautiful man, also."

Weekend on 04/23/2015