Album Notes

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IF YOU HAVE DIFFICULTY ORDERING THIS CD FROM THE SITE YOU CAN ORDER BY CONTACTING COSY DIRECTLY VIA EMAIL: Cozoid (at sign)aol.com. Thanks.

The first song on Cosy Sheridan’s new CD Eros opens: “This is the story of longing in the blood and the bone/ whatever it is you love, that you’re longing to come home.” Love. Longing. Home: the themes of the myth of Psyche and Eros, and the theme of this smart elegant CD.

Cosy has gained a reputation for looking at modern life in a mythic context. The Cornell Folksong Society has written: “Sheridan is frank, feisty, sublimely and devilishly funny. She fuses myth with modern culture; Persephone with Botox.”

The opening song on Eros lays out the story of Psyche’s search for Eros: we fall in love with love – with an idealized perfection, the love of gods. But we live in a fallen world: love inevitably disappoints, fails us at a crucial moment. And so we wander the world looking for what love can truly be; like Psyche we do impossible tasks – always searching for the heart.

“I love how immediate and also timeless this story is,” says Cosy. “This is a search for connection; the occasional miracle of the soulmate and the constant miracle of the god of love within us.”

Five of the songs in this collection directly bring the myth into modern life: in Row Psyche is a middle-aged woman working in a walk-in clinic where she can warn young women about the dangers of irresponsible but charming young men. "The Days I Do Not Believe" uses the tasks that Psyche is given to look at our sometimes overwhelming lives: “How do I count my blessings / How do I sort every seed / How do I carry the water / On the days I do not believe.”

This is a CD of joy – "The Last Love Letter", a old-timey bluegrass song of farewell has a melody of hope and a feeling of leaning forward into life. "The Beauty Cream", the energetic peak of the CD is a backporch stomp blues with a Hammond B3, raucous background vocals and a duel between a National steel guitar and a mandolin.

The quiet and beautiful "A Seed of Misfortune" is a quiet gem of reconciliation. “Some nights I have a dream where what was lost is found again/And I am enfolded by something that wakes me as happy as I have ever been.”

Before love we chop wood and carry water; after love we again chop wood and carry water. And so the last song on the CD, "Happiness Is Waiting", is, literally, a very happy song about the simple pleasure of hanging your laundry on the line on a beautiful morning.

Throughout this CD, Cosy’s guitar work shines – a testament to years of honing her craft – as does her voice: an instrument of warm shimmering timbre. She has been called one of the era’s finest and most thoughtful singer/songwriters. Listen to Eros and you’ll agree.