Pieta Brown

Like an element of nature or a late night dream, Pieta Brown speaks from a place deep inside, choosing her words carefully, relying on subtle precision and poetry to keep her balance. With insight drawn from a childhood spent half in the hills of Iowa (no heat or indoor plumbing) and half entrenched in the Deep South of Birmingham, Alabama, Pieta forms an equilibrium of raw emotion and sophistication, heavy blues and honest country, rudimental rock and a hint of loss.

Equal parts girl and woman, Pieta splits the difference between her selves, and offers a new kind of insight in her songs, simple and profound, loaded with quiet anger, electric joy, a touch of innocence and a window on the world. Brown's visionary songs are like a fabric woven from countless threads…simple and familiar when viewed from a distance, but deeply rich and varied when you get up close enough to notice.

Recorded live at Ardent Studios in Memphis, In the Cool is a collection of deep-grooved songs that are full of meaning and images…some fixed, many open to interpretation. They represent not only her own experiences, but also a very real musical conversation with guitarist/co-producer Bo Ramsey (Greg Brown, Lucinda Williams). When Pieta was 17 she went to see Ramsey play for the first time, and leaning all alone against a barroom wall, she was mesmerized. She remembers thinking matter-of-factly, "Someday I’m gonna play music with that guy." They’ve been friends ever since, and years later, their connection can be felt tangibly throughout In the Cool, lending the record a quality of home, of words unspoken.

In the Cool is remarkable and real, a truly human catch-in-the-throat, a sequence of personal moments simmering beneath a surface of professional edge, stellar production and exceptional musicianship.

Contributing to this is an all-star lineup including bassist Hutch Hutchinson (Bonnie Raitt), bassist Dave Jacques (John Prine), keyboardist Kevin McKendree (Delbert McClinton, Etta James, Lee Roy Parnell) and drummer Bryan Owings (Buddy & Julie Miller, Shelby Lynne).