Portland's Best Female Vocalist 2003
- Portland Phoenix - Best Music Poll
 "Cox
is the assured storyteller, teasing the lines into a recognizable time
and space. She begins her solo career with a most graceful first step."
- NO DEPRESSION
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"Arrive" unfolds with 12 tracks of catchy, country-influenced rock
and smart, sophisticated balladry.
read the article
"Rarely has a local musician who's been
on the scene for a while had as impressive a breakout year as Sara
Cox did in 2003. As part of Portland's impressive roots scene, Cox
- evidenced by the accompanying BMP history and the fact that she has
participated in all four Greetings From Area Code 207 compilations
- has long been prominent. However, the past year saw her vault to
the next level of public acknowledgement, reaching out beyond our local
scene for some national attention.
Locally, her album, Arrive, released in September, was the Phoenix's
critical choice as best album of the year (which means I love it),
and at least three singles - "Arrive," "Hit the Wall" (radio
edit) and "Look up" - have enjoyed rotation on WCLZ. Nationally,
she enjoyed a month as "One to Watch" from the USA Songwriting Competition,
garnering airplay on NPR stations across America. She traveled down
to Austin, Texas, to participate in an alternative South by Southwest,
playing alongside notables like Sarah Harmer. And mags like Paste and
Harp have either featured her music or reviewed her disc favorably.
She couldn't do it with her voice (alternately full of timbre and
at a silky falsetto) alone, however. Rethinking the Coming Grass has
led to her backing band, the Chestones: Ginger Cote on drums, Justin
Maxwell on bass, and the owner of my personal-favorite guitar tone
in town, Nate Schrock. Thus has Cox become, in her words, "pretty
rockin'."
Well, we say, for lack of anything more erudite, Rock on!"
Sam Pfeifle, Portland Phoenix, 2004
"Studded with pop hooks and well turned lyrics"
The Boston Herald
 "Cox isn't content
to confine herself to any particular style...she dodges disjointedness
simply by the grace of her distinct sound and uncomplicated, yet versatile
character...her talents are laid truly bare on a cover - an a capella
go at Richard Buckner's "Fater." Here, she stuns and irrevocably
distinguishes herself from her peers."
Harp Magazine
Click here for the full
Harp Magazine review
"an intimate sitting room album that reveals a songwriter's
subtle hand"
Creative Loafing, Atlanta
"...It all has to do with her (Cox's) beautiful voice. A combination
of melancholy, dreaminess, flexible yet also powerful. With which she
can sing rootsreggae (the relaxed "Stir The Waters") as well
as rootspop (on opener "The Milk Song" and the single "Hit
The Wall") and alt countrysongs. This last genre can be found
on the excellent centre piece with "Beat Down Grass" (listen
to the Irish folkdrums), this leads to the restraint /anger after a
broken up relationship ("Devotion") and the strikingly presented
loneliness of "Single Girl." It can get more silent, which
she shows on the superior Gillian Welch -like "Confession #87," an
ode to the free woman and later on "Fater," an a capella
cover piece by Richard Buckner. While taking a second look at the cd
cover it reminds me; they could not have chosen a better title!"
ALTCOUNTRY NL - the Netherlands, October 2003
'Arrive' will find a place in your heart...
" 'Arrive' will find a place in your heart, and is likely to
be resident there for some years to come - it's THAT good...this is
the sound of a fully formed artist breaking through, and with justice,
it w ill earn her critical plaudits as well as impressive record sales."
Americana UK, September 2003
Click here for the full
Americana UK review
Sara Cox is a gifted singer-songwriter who's gotten national recognition
from fans of American roots music.
But unlike some young (she's 31) aspiring musicians, Cox isn't looking
to parlay her name recognition into top billing at venues around the
country.
No, she'd be happier just making music in somebody's living room.
"For songwriters like me, living room shows are the best place to
play because you can really connect with the audience," said Cox, who
lives in Portland. "You also sell more CDs than at a club and all the
(ticket) money goes to you. These people host the shows out of the
kindness of their hearts."
Cox is a big proponent of a growing trend in live music known as house
concerts or living room shows, especially popular with fans of roots
and folk music. In areas that don't have venues where a singer-songwriter
can play, like a nightclub or performance hall, some resident books
a musician to play at their home.
Admission is charged (Cox charges $10 to $12 at her living room shows)
but the atmosphere is relaxed. People often bring food and are encouraged
to chat with the performer.
"There aren't the barriers you might find in clubs, people hear the
personal content in your songs and they want to talk to you," Cox said.
With emotional songs and a voice that's been compared to Gillian Welch,
Cox makes a lasting impression on people who've seen her perform or
have heard her CDs. She first became known around Portland about seven
years ago performing as part of the roots-rock band the Coming Grass,
which includes her husband, Nate Schrock.
She also has released two solo CDs, a six-song EP in 2000 called "Firewater" and
the full-length "Arrive" in 2003.
Cox, who plays guitar and often writes songs that focus on vocal harmonies,
has been written about in roots-music publications around the country.
She's had her songs played on stations nationwide, too.
She was recently on the cover of Third Coast Music, a publication
that chronicles music in the roots-music epicenter, Austin, Texas.
Cox was included in a story about the surprising amount of roots,
folk or country performers from Portland who are popular in Austin,
or have made Austin their base.
"There are a lot of connections between the two places," said Cox.
Cox spent most of her childhood in another music mecca, Nashville,
Tenn. Her childhood baby-sitter was Kathy Mattea, who became a country
music star.
"My mother taught piano and my father still plays guitar at pubs," said
Cox. "And in Nashville, music is everywhere. I had a little ukulele
and started writing songs when I was 5 or 6."
Cox's family moved to Bar Harbor and she attended high school on Mount
Desert Island. After high school, she moved to Portland to attend the
University of Southern Maine. In Portland she met Schrock, a native
Mainer who had toured the country in various rock bands.
The duo started performing together, in the Coming Grass. Today the
couple has two sons, ages 4 and 6. That's one reason why Cox has no
great desire to tour the country playing music.
The other is that she's heard what it's like from her husband, and
she's not too impressed.
Cox said she never really planned on making a career of music. She
looks at singer-songwriters who influenced her, like Joni Mitchell
and Gillian Welch, and can't imagine doing what they do. But many of
her fans can, and critics have compared her to Welch.
Cox actually opened a show for Welch once, in Portland.
"It was wonderful, she was so down to earth," said Cox. "I wasn't
going to gush, but after a while I couldn't hold back, so I did. But
she was so comfortable with it."
As for balancing raising her children with writing songs and performing,
Cox says she writes when the kids are taking a nap. And she has relatives
nearby to help care for them when she performs.
"It's worked out great for me," Cox says.
And for her fans, too.
Maine Sunday Telegram, January 16, 2005
...enthralled and engaged by Cox's vocal range...
"I am enthralled and engaged by Cox's vocal range, mesmerized
by her melancholy pathos, lulled by her sweet sentiment...So it should
come as little surprise that I am wholly in love with Cox's debut full-length, "Arrive"...I've
even made a copy of it so I can have it at work and at home and not
have to worry about fighting over it with my wife."
Portland Phoenix
"Sara Cox sings so well it's unreal. Did she fall from a star
or what?"
Portland Press Herald
...hard to take out of the CD player...
"Overall, the combination of Cox's insightful words, strong voice,
and excellent musical accompaniment make "Arrive" an album
that will be hard to take out of the CD player once you've popped it
in.
Face Magazine
Holds a very seductive power...
"Quite moving in it's simplicity, Cox's gentle, soulful brand
of country music holds a very seductive power."
Miles of Music
"...Exceptional"
John Conquest, Third Coast Music
Every song is about a relationship that didn't, isn't, or won't work,
but somehow that's ok, because it has to be...
"There's a line off Golden Smog's "Down by the old Mainstream" that
encapsulates alt-country lyricism: "I'm lonely when you hate me,
you hate me when I'm lonely, but mostly I'm just here to kick around." It's
a realization, a resignation, that sometimes life just sucks, but it
doesn't have to get you down. And only a certain kind of voice-a Jeff
Louris, Jeff Tweedy, Gillian Welch, or a Sara Cox - can pull it off
without sounding like a (gasp) country music singer. Here on Cox's "Firewater",
a sadness pervades, but it's not the sadness of self-pity. It's the
sadness you feel when you go back and visit a house you haven't lived
in for a while: you can't help but miss everything that went on there,
even if it wasn't always good times and smiles. Every song is about
a relationship that didn't, isn't, or won't work, but somehow that's
ok, because it has to be.
"The opening "Waste of Time", appearing first on the "Greetings
from Area Code 207 Volume 1" compilation breaks your heart right
away: "Well I've been thinking 'bout the way you left that day," Cox
sings plaintively, "making jokes like it was not the end. And
if I'd thought of something smarter to say, maybe now we'd still be
friends." Does anyone not have a relationship lurking in their
past that ended that way? Or maybe that's the relationship you're in
right now. Cox sings about making do with what you've got on her contribution
to "Area Code 207, Volume 2", "Sticking (not stuck)". "Although
your mouth is now closed when we kiss, I know your head's still open.
Despite all the details that somehow we missed, I know our hearts still
need them, oh yeah." And when she sings "oh yeah", it
doesn't sound like filler. "Sticking" also showcases Cox
with a full backing band of talented musicians including Nate Schrock
- whose brilliant side is all over this record - and drummer Ginger
Cote, quite adept at keeping Cox's morphine-haze-like pace.
"That's impressive, but so is "SUGAR", one of the two
songs where Cox is all alone. "Baby, don't let your sugar turn
hard, "she advises in the chorus. "it's too hard to taste
that way." One gets the feeling that Cox has had plenty of reasons
for letting her sugar turn hard, but she's used her music as a salve,
and we're the luckier for it."
The Portland Phoenix, December 7, 2001
"Sara Cox is a fine vocalist and a sharp songwriter. The musicianship
on the Coming Grass singer's new, six song CD, 'Firewater,' is first
rate, featuring not only Cox's own considerable talents on guitar but
also those of husband Nate Schrock on guitar and bass, sister in-law
Kate Schrock on piano and ex-Coming Grass drummer Ginger Cote. Not
a track here doesn't live up to the standard set by the opening cut,
'Waste of Time' (one of the highlights of last year's 'Greetings From
Area Code 207' compilation)."
Casco Bay Weekly, September 27, 2001
"Sara Cox has the kind of brazenly aching (or achingly brazen)
voice that seems tailor-made for this music. Sounding somewhat like
Shelby Lynne, she harmonizes beautifully... On the practically devastating
'No Harm,' her restraint is as poignant as her usual brio."
The Bar Harbor Times, July 19, 2001, From a review of "Homegrown
Volume IV," a compilation album put together by radio station
WCLZ.
"Worth the price of admission all by itself, though, is Sara
Cox's "No Harm," an understated tune that reminder me of
'Trinity Session'-era Cowboy Junkies, with a hint of Sarah McLachlan
in the chorus harmonies."
The Portland Press Herald, Nov. 11, 1999 |
