Kicking off with loose bluesy guitar licks, dreamlike acoustic strums, and a descending rhythmic blend of steel guitars and brushed drums, Ross Cooper’snewest single, “Another Mile,” manages to capture in sound what it feels like to grow up. The wistful lyrics will inspire you, just as Cooper intended.
“A ton of folks move to Nashville with a similar goal in mind, and for the most part, it’s pretty dang tough on everyone at one point or another,” Cooper says. “I wanted to write about that optimism though — about leaving everything you know and cutting out on your own to chase something. I wrote [“Another Mile”] with my friend Ryan Beaver. We’re both, coincidentally, pretty big Roger Miller fans. When we sat down to write, I had part of a chord progression and an idea for a title, and that was about it. In the way that the rhyme scheme and chord progression fell together, I think you can hear a bit of that Roger Miller influence.”
“Another Mile,” is Cooper’s latest single off of his upcoming album, I Rode Wild Horses— a title that reflects the Texas native’s former career as a professional bareback rider.
“This song was one of the easiest to record,” he says. “I remember looking up during Eddy Dunlap’s pedal-steel solo, and thinking, How in the hell do you top that? We got it knocked out in a couple of takes, called it a day, and went and got tacos.”
Cooper says he’s very thankful for the caliber of players he got to work with on the album. “It sure makes everything a lot easier,” he says.
I Rode Wild Horses will be available March 9. In the meantime, tune your ears to Cooper’s “Another Mile” and prepare to be hooked.