Album Notes

On his long-awaited debut CD, "Granite in the Mirror," award-winning Washington D. C.-area singer-songwriter, L. V. Cook, strikes a balance on sound and subject. This is a difficult CD to categorize, but reflects the folk, bluegrass, country and blues heritage of his Southern roots. There are the acoustic bluegrass/alternative country offerings (e.g., "Soldier and a Salesman," "Warm," "Sick of the Cure") featuring mandolin and fiddle. At the other end of the spectrum, there are the rock/blues arrangements (e.g., "Monument," "Given all the Giving," "Scene of the Crime," "Headlights," "Caesar's Dead"). In the middle, there are the more contemporary folk songs (e.g., "Feather," "So Little Sleep"). The CD also includes the Gold Winner in the Folk Category of the 2003 Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, "Family Reunion," with its Celtic orchestration and unique narrative verse.

Even for the common topics such as love, L. V. Cook pursues novel subjects for his songs, which are often conveyed as character sketches. The poetic edginess of these lyrics is perfectly matched to Cook's bluesy heartfelt vocal style. Lyrics and commentary are available at http://www.LVCook.com.

The songs on this CD cover the breadth of emotions, from the hopeful story of a woman moving on from the memory of the husband she lost in the 9/11 attack ("Lost Love"), to an almost matter-of-fact but tragic portrayal of spousal abuse ("Soldier and a Salesman"), to the tongue-in-cheek finale "Caesar's Dead," a song about the fear of Open Mic Night that strikes a chord with virtually any aspiring performer. Cook says, "A CD should be like a good movie...the marriage of circumstances and revelations."

As of February, 2005, a re-release of this CD is being shipped. The re-release features alternative arrangements for "Lost Love" and "Scene of the Crime", and harmonica has been added to the arrangement of "Given All The Giving." The re-release has been professionally re-mastered. The sound clips above are for the original release and do not reflect the enhancements for the re-release.