New solo piano studio album will release in spring 2025 on Psychic Hotline Records (produced by Justin Vernon). You already know Phil Cook, at least if you’ve listened to any of the most essential folk-rock, indie rock, or even gospel records of the last decade. The spirited piano solo on Hiss Golden Messenger’s Day O Day, the incisive melody of Bon Iver’s AUTAC, the mesmerizing elegance of the keys on Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Life on Earth—yes, those are all Phil Cook, a beloved collaborator capable of transforming an entire song with a pretty lick here, a sharp line there. The War on Drugs, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Ani DiFranco, Nathaniel Rateliff, Frazey Ford, the Indigo Girls: Cook’s partnerships in just the last dozen years shape their own best-of. But now, Phil Cook has returned to his first musical love: solo piano.