Dropping today: Marc M Cogman's 9th LP - Heritage, Legacy, and the Blood-Red Dirt

From my grandma’s old piano, I conjure up the dead…

So sings Marc M Cogman, perfectly encapsulating his ninth LP, Heritage, Legacy, and the Blood-Red Dirt. In a major departure from his earlier work, Cogman’s ambitious new album looks to his own family tree to tell stories of his parents, grandparents, and further ancestors, all painting an intimate American portrait, deeply intertwined – in particular – with the place they called home: Oklahoma.

Major events from American and Oklahoma history provide the backdrop for Cogman’s lyrical storytelling as he inhabits different characters from his own heritage. On songs like “Stage IV” and “Said Mary Sunshine to Ena May” he sings first-person in his grandparent’s voice to recount the tragedies and miracles of their marriages. On “What Wouldn’t You Do?” he narrates the 1893 Cherokee Strip land-rush through the eyes of his great great grandfather. On “I Do, I Do, I Do” he visits 1951, 1978, and 2012 to find parallels through multiple family weddings. And in present day, he shares his own perspective, both internally toward his own legacy (“Heartbeat”) and externally as he reflects on his own troubled relationship with his ancestral home (“Leaving Oklahoma”, “The Reason I Don’t Own a Gun”).

With Cogman’s longtime backing band, The Dead Messengers and a talented array of guest musicians from all over the country, the intricate use of archival audio and instrumental interludes as connective tissue between the songs, and stunning artwork featuring photographs dating back over 100 years, Heritage, Legacy, and the Blood-Red Dirt is perhaps the greatest artistic achievement yet of a unique American voice.