Hearing country singer Elizabeth Cook should be enough to prove that her vernacular is true, but she has a backstory that's the stuff of true country music. Cook's mother, a singer, was a regional radio star on the Buddy Starcher Show on WCHS out of Charleston, W.Va., before moving to Florida and marrying Cook's musician/moonshine-runner father, who served prison time for the latter trade.
After several attempts at breaking into mainstream country music, Cook realized some commercial and artistic potential with her independent 2004 release This Side of the Moon. Produced by country songwriter Rodney Crowell, Cook's latest CD (Balls) finds her stepping up for feminism in the 21st century; it includes the anthemic "Sometimes It Takes Balls to Be a Woman."
This was Cook's second appearance by herself on Mountain Stage, though she had visited once as a back-up singer for Nanci Griffith.
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