Anita Cochran
Named after Anita Carter from the legendary Carter Family, Anita Cochran was destined for music. Though Anita was born in Pontiac, Mich., her parents hailed from the hills of Kentucky. Both parents sang and played guitar and started a family band before Anita was born. At the tender age of 4 Anita began playing guitar and singing herself and at the age of 5 she joined her family band playing country, gospel and bluegrass music.
Anita toured every weekend in the family band and as a teenager she started performing solo performances. Her love of music wasn’t only about the great vocalists that inspired Anita, she also was inspired from musicians. At one time in my life I thought, “I want to learn to play every instrument there is” says Anita. Though guitar was the first instrument she learned to play, she also learned to play the mandolin, banjo, bass guitar, piano, drums, dobro and steel guitar.“I loved and lived for music”. “I wanted to know it all, though I mostly played country, gospel and bluegrass, my brothers played rock and blues and after all, growing up around Detroit, you couldn’t be sheltered from Motown! It’s rare that a day ever went by when I was a child that I didn’t play guitar.” says Anita. “I always knew I would be involved in music for my career. Though I had many jobs to supplement the income of a musician, I never gave up the dream of doing music full time”.
Anita began writing songs and became interested in producing. She landed a job at Pearl Sound Recording Studios in Canton, MI as the Studio Manager. From there she ended up in the Presidents office of Warner Bros. Records in Nashville, TN with President Jim Ed Norman. Upon that first meeting she signed with Warner Bros. Records.
Anita made history with her first release “Back To You” by being the first woman of country music to produce, write, sing and play multiple instruments including lead guitar on a debut release. She was labeled a “quadruple threat” in Nashville and became a Grand Ole Opry favorite. The cd was a critically acclaimed debut and garnished her first self written #1 song “What If I Said” ( a duet with Steve Wariner). “ When I was writing the song, I could hear Steve singing it with me but didn’t know if that would ever happen seeing that we had never met”. Their first meeting was in the studio when they were recording the song. “I had been a huge fan of Steve’s for a long time. I wasn’t sure what he was doing in his career because it seemed he had been laying low but it meant the world to me to get to work with him and to share my first #1 record with one of my hero’s”. Anita also won the TNN/Music City Awards for “Vocal Event” and was nominated by both CMA and the ACM’s.
With her 2nd release “Anita”, Anita joined forces with General Motors who sponsored a tour with her based around Dale Earnhart Sr. and Nascar. GM used one of the tracks on the cd “Goodtimes” for a national campaign. Anita recorded another duet on this project with another hero Wynona Judd on a rockin’ womans anthem called “God Created Woman”. The producer’s of “The Dukes Of Hazard” got a copy of the cd and called Anita and asked her if they could use some songs on the cd to feature during a “Dukes Of Hazzard Reunion Show”. They used the song “Goodtimes” as the show opener and featured 3 more songs of Anita’s including the heartbreaking song “Everytime It Rains” from the “Anita” cd. Anita also had her acting debut in the show starring as Anita Blackwell, Tom Wopat’s love interest. “I watched the “Dukes of Hazard” faithfully when I was growing up so I was thrilled to get to be a featured part of the show”. “The cast was great and made me feel right at home”.
With two records released from Warner Bros., Anita began to work on her 3rd cd.
“At the time country music didn’t seem to be country music, at least the kind that I grew up on.” Anita says.” “No one wanted to hear banjo or mandolin or sing songs about cheating or drinking or anything that wasn’t politically correct”. “I wanted to hear a real country song, like the kind I heard and played growing up”. When Anita arrived back home after discussing this with her label, she sat down and wrote “I Wanna Hear A Cheatin’ Song” and again made music history. It was the first newly recorded song featuring the voice of a deceased artist in any genre. Anita featured the voice of legendary Conway Twitty to sing on a cameo appearance. A song he had never sang before. With two years and over 36 master recordings of Conway Twitty, Anita assembled the words she needed from Conway’s previous recordings to sing on her brand new song. The song instantly became a #1 song on Nashville radio and the Grand Ole Opry was continually having her come perform the song on the Opry.
“I’m so thankful to have gotten to do this project. To work with his children and his widow and to hear their stories just meant a lot to me. Conway and Loretta Lynn were my two favorite artists a child so this was really meant to be a tribute to Conway and to all of those country artists who sang about real life things and didn’t care about being politically correct. Song’s are supposed to make you feel something……if we can’t sing about real life things, how can we feel anything”?
With the momentum of the single and video heading upwards, Anita’s label Warner Bros. Records had a complete change of guards. Anita and her label of over 10 years parted ways. “That’s just how the industry is, when the one who signs you to the label leaves, you might as well pack it up too”. “It happens every day in this town, it’s just something you have to deal with without taking it personally”.
Anita decided to take off on the road. She teamed up with country artists Tammy Cochran (no relation) and started touring together. Tammy has multiple hits at country radio and was in need of a new cd. Before they new it, Anita was in the studio producing Tammy’s new record. “I love being in the studio and it was so much fun getting to produce someone other than myself. It had been awhile since I got to do that and I’m very proud of the project”. “Tammy’s a great singer, performer and writer, I feel honored that she wanted to work with me”. Tammy’s project is due to be released 4th quarter of 2006.
Anita is talking with other artists about producing their projects but hasn’t forgotten about herself. She is currently writing for her new project and is due to be in the studio in the near future. “The industry continually changes, so does the world. I have been in the business all of my life and over 15 years of it professionally full time. I have achieved my childhood goals but as an adult I have new goals to set and achieve. I thank God everyday for everything that I have experienced and achieved. The good and the bad, I’ve learned from both. I have many musical influences from Ralph Stanley to Bonnie Raitt and on this next project I want to include all of them.
I don’t want to put up any walls on this project. It’s going to be wide open”!