As a longtime Eric Church fan, I was pretty sad when news broke that Joanna Cotten was stepping away from touring with Chief.
She announced in July that she will be taking some time off to seemingly focus on some solo music once Eric’s current Gather Again Tour comes to an end.
She’s already a star in her own right and certainly deserves a chance to make some music on her own, but still… it kinda sucks:
Those two just had such a special chemistry, and it’s going to be really weird to see him up on stage without her when the next tour rolls around.
Joanna was actually signed to Warner in the early 2000s, however, a full studio album never materialized, but she did release an EP called Funkabilly in 2007.
Of course, she has some absolutely powerhouse vocals, and could pretty much sing anybody in any genre under the table with her incredible range. Eric clearly recognizes how talented she is, and often gives her chances on tour to take center stage and sing a song of her choosing.
And at a show in Dallas, Texas in 2019, she crushed a cover of Lee Ann Womack’s 90’s heartbreaker, “A Little Past Little Rock.”
Written by Brett Jones, Tony Lane and Jess Brown, the song was released as first single from Lee Ann’s Some Things I Know album in June of 1998. It became a hit, peaking at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart later that year.
Though Joanna hasn’t outright confirmed any specific new music is on the way, I have a feeling we’re going to be hearing a lot more from Miss Cotten in the not too distant future.
I sincerely hope that’s the case, at least, because I need more of this in my life…
Seriously, how damn good is this song? I could listen to Jo Jo sing 90’s country all damn day:
“A Little Past Little Rock”
