Albums

Scott Cooley has typically released approximately one full-length studio album containing at least a dozen new original songs every two years, and has done so on the summer solstice in even numbered years since the late 90s, although the earlier cassettes and CDs are now out of print.  Each album page (linked to below) allows you to navigate deeper into detailed individual song subpages for each song on each album.  As of 2024, there are 12 studio albums available for streaming everywhere.

Unique Things

There are unique and interesting things about Scott Cooley albums that each have in common. Here are some:

• Album Covers ("artwork," photos, CD packaging, etc.): Scott does all this himself, and does it as fast as possible, using only free software, so it costs him nothing but a little of his own time. Where applicable, the person who took the picture is credited - usually a family member. Amazon requires a certain format for the tray liner, disc face, and booklet. Scott barely meets their graphic file requirements by using SnagIt screen capture software for the whole thing. It is far from perfect, and Scott likes it that way. They call this Art Direction & Design.

• Liner Notes: Scott writes all these himself, giving himself well-deserved credit for practically everything.  They make for a good read for those inclined.

• Track Order: Of course Scott carefully puts the songs on each album in a particular order himself, just as you would a mix tape, so as to hold the listener's attention and maximize the listening experience.

• Track Count: There are typically 13 songs on each album, except Used To Be Good Looking, which has 14. The vast majority are originals in which both the music and lyrics were written by Scott, although there have been 2 cover songs of public domain or traditional songs arranged by Scott, and 2 original instrumentals.

• Release Dates: Always on or as close as possible to his birthday, which is June 21st, in even-numbered years. No reason, other than well, it's his birthday, and every two years is good amount of time in-between, considering how long it takes to write and record.

• Recording Location: Always at Scott Cooley Recording Studio, wherever Scott lives. It has changed from Flint to Grand Blanc to East Lansing over the years as Scott moved. Currently, it's in a spare bedroom in Scott's basement.

• Recording Personnel: Just Scott. He is the engineer, the performer, the arranger, the songwriter, the producer, the mixer, the masterer, etc. Once in a while, his lovely wife Lenore is a guest studio musician (accordion, marimba, keyboard, flute and background vocalist). Scott's dogs, Lucky, Levi & Livingston, have served in spiritual guidance roles.

• Recording Process: Like producing the album covers, it's all about speed. Scott blogged about it in detail here: http://blog.scottcooley.com/2012/07/my-recording-process.html

• Recording Equipment: Most of it is shown and described on this page within this site: Gear

• Instrumentation:  Scott sings lead & background vocals; plays rhythm, lead & slide acoustic guitar;  non-upright acoustic bass guitar;  rhythm & lead ukulele;  piano, electric piano, organ, cello & flute via MIDI keyboard;  harmonica;  marimba;  mandolin;  djembe, snare w/ brush, cymbals, congas, bongos, bhodran, maracas, tambourine, castanets & washboard.

• Record Label: Scott Cooley Records, which was formerly known as Cool Breeze Records. SCR is the independent micro-label or netlabel run by Scott Cooley and featuring Scott Cooley as its only recording artist.

• Distribution: Scott distributes directly to Amazon for CDs, and directly to Google Play for MP3, and directly to Bandcamp for free streaming, FLAC, OGG, ALAC, AIFF and other formats. Those three sites are cool because they allow this.  For the "get your songs in iTunes" part, he used TuneCore for a while, got fed up with their software and prices, then switched to CD Baby, who also aggregate to Spotify, and other popular MP3 download and streaming sites.

• Promotion: There isn't any. Scott does, however, notify friends via his web site, blog, email, and social media posts about the availability of each release, which amazingly results in actual sales transactions, mostly from Facebook friends, he suspects.

Related Pages

Discography | Records | CDs | Store | Songs