AMANDA COOKSEY

Pindrop Songwriter Series

Sunday March 19, 2023

@ The Clubhouse at Sonny’s in Nashville

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

To truly encompass the essence and artistry of the songwriting craft during a unique to Nashville songwriter night, you need the combination of a perfect room with a respectful audience who understands the importance of keeping their conversations to an absolute minimum so that every word and each note can be digested in its purest, stripped-down form.

In other words, you need it to be so quiet that you can hear a pin drop! 

Not just a clever name, that’s the exact aura that the Pindrop Songwriter Series has created every Sunday night at The Clubhouse at Sonny’s.

While the main room and spacious patio deck at the Germantown establishment have become known as the “Good Mood” place to be with a lively atmosphere, great food, and a big screen that shows the hottest sporting event of the day, their Clubhouse presents an entirely different feel.

Located just off the corner of the patio deck but tucked far enough away to escape the radiating noise levels of the main room, The Clubhouse invites you into its warm living room feel with dim lighting and comfy couches to experience some of the best emerging talents on the music scene today.

Amanda Cooksey solidified her place as one of the best of the best during the second of five rounds on this week’s Sunday night showcase.

Releasing her 7-song album Him in 2021, Cooksey made an immediate impact on the scene with songs such as “In Denial,” “What’s His Name,” and “Wish You Were Here,” garnering nearly 500K culminative Spotify streams. Continuing to ride that solid wave of buzz into 2022, she then delivered the very well-received “My Phone” (with Lukas Scott) as she paved the next solid step ahead on her path.

After referring to the song about an ex that Noah Petty played just before her, Cooksey exclaimed, “Well, this first song is about my ex, too!” Pausing to fine tune her guitar strings, before then transparently sharing, “But I’m in a really happy relationship now so than God for that,” as she dropped her uniquely soulful tinged vocal into the groove of her pop kissed breakthrough, “What’s His Name,” quickly getting heads across the venue bobbing in time with the rhythm as she pushed through a lyric that saw her owning her mistake of ever even talking to him when she knew better, while fully embracing how much better off she is now without him in her life.

"I never even met you before tonight," Amanda said turning to Noah who had just finished playing a "mama" song. "But I guess we're just following each other cause I'm gonna play a mama song too.”

"My boyfriend and I have been dating for a year and a half now and it's been awesome, but we've gone through so much too. During our first year of dating one of the things we had to go through was his mom dying from cancer. I only met her once before we were then having to take care of her, and so I wanted to do something to commemorate her and I wrote this one last week," she finished with an emotional wavering in her voice as she played "When I See You," slowing the pace as she took us through a photo album of all that she wished she could've experienced with his mom while cleverly wrapping all her distinguishable personality traits into each of the moments, leaning on them to then share how blessed she is to see them within her boyfriend every day as he carries on the legacy she's left behind.

"I figured that instead of closing with a sad song, I'll close with a happy one," shared Amanda as she hit into a bluesy tilt and enhanced her pop infused style in such a perfect way on "Holding Up The Line" that as her vocals popped through the we're done here/kiss off lyric, she immediately engulfed the room with a modern speakeasy type of feel that held the vibe of the groove as the stunned crowd sat up a little straighter and leaned in for a closer listen.

With a blending of her familiar hit and two unreleased songs, Cooksey used her time on stage to expertly blend the reason you need to know her with why you need to keep listening for what comes next, enticing the audience on hand and heightening the buzz surrounding her while vibing in the signatures that are uniquely her own in a bold showing of growth as a songwriter and performer and her abilities to think outside the comfort zone parameters that intriguingly stretch boundary lines to their furthest point. 

FULL SET LIST
1) What's His Name
2) When I See You
3) Holding Up The Line

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