Brent Cobb has played a role in more country music hits than you might think.
Though he might not be a household name (at least in some unfortunate households), Brent Cobb is a name that everyone should know… and everyone in Nashville already does. He’s an uberly talented and endlessly versatile artist and songwriter that has released songs in the Americana, country and rock and roll spaces. Cobb has even scored a Grammy Nomination for his 2016 album Shine On Rainy Day. It was nominated for a “Best American Album Award” at the 60th Annual Grammys.
So clearly, the man knows what he’s doing in the songwriting space. He’s been trusted by some of the biggest artists in the genre to write and cowrite, and many of those tracks have gone on to have a lot of success – both on the charts and in the eyes of their fanbases. We’re talking Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Jake Owen, Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan, and even non-mainstream acts like Whiskey Myers and The Steel Woods.
He just released a new acoustic album titled, Live a Song, Write a Memory, Vol. 1, which features Cobb revisiting his catalog with stripped down renditions of some old favorites… recorded by him as well as some tracks that were cut by other artists. He says:
“In the early days when I started writing in Nashville, I always liked the sound of the work tapes better than I liked the studio recordings of my songs. I’ve wanted to make an acoustic album like this for a long time, and I look forward to releasing more of these throughout my career.”
Cobb has also obviously written a number of songs for himself that have really made waves, including “Black Creek” from his No Place Left To Leave project and “Diggin’ Holes” from his Grammy-nominated album. But I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the songs he’s penned for others… because there’s a good chance you probably don’t realize how far Brent Cobb’s fingerprints stretch across country music.
“Mud” by Whiskey Myers
Whiskey Myers may not have gotten their hands on “Let The Rain Come Down,” but they’ve been helped by Brent Cobb on plenty of other occasions. The band’s lead man, Cody Cannon, and Brent Cobb worked together on the title track from their 2016 album Mud. It was arguably a stand out song from the entire project, along with “Stone,” and has racked up over 13 million streams on Spotify. Whiskey Myers also cut another Cobb tune… “Bar, Guitar and a Honky Tonk Crowd,” which appeared on their 2011 album Firewater.
“Don’t It” Kenny Chesney
Bet you didn’t see this one coming. Kenny Chesney is known to lean more tropical and island country with most of his work, while Brent Cobb tends to stay in the southern rock and rocking country side of things. However, the two worlds collided with “Don’t It,” which was featured in Chesney’s 2014 album The Big Revival. Brent Cobb and Chase McGill wrote the track, and Kenny Chesney gravitated towards the escaping-the-small-town theme.
“Old Sh*t” Miranda Lambert
If you know Brent Cobb, it’s crazy how much his voice comes through on this Miranda Lambert deep cut. Cobb and Lambert have worked together on a number of songs, but this one definitely stands out as the most successful. The nostalgic message connected with fans, and Neil Mason and Brent Cobb must have known that singing an ode to the old stuff in our lives would have staying power.
“I Let A Damn Good Woman Leave” Riley Green
Riley Green’s Behind the Bar album from 2021 had a couple of highlights, and one of them was the song that the country star wrote with Adam Hood, Scotch Taylor and Brent Cobb. It’s racked up over 10 million streams on Spotify alone, and it’s a track that perfectly fits within Green’s discography.
“Six Feet Apart” Luke Combs
This pandemic-inspired song is far and above the biggest song that Brent Cobb has written for someone else. He, Combs, and Rob Snyder sat down and wrote this time capsule of a song in early 2020 after the COVID lockdown had begun. Obviously, it came at the perfect time, and it shot up to No. 10 spot on the Hot Country Charts (and even cracked the Top 60 of the Billboard Hot 100).
It’s also worth mentioning that Cobb also just helped Combs out again with “Days Like These” from his latest album, The Way I Am. That one has had plenty of success already too, but it’s still not as big as “Six Feet Apart.”
Honorable Mentions
“Let The Rain Come Down” by The Steel Woods
This song written by Brent Cobb (and Jason “Rowdy” Cope) was actually fought over by The Steel Woods and Whiskey Myers. Cobb has even said that he wishes he would have kept this song, which was made famous by The Steel Woods, for himself. Cobb did eventually put out his own studio version of the track, but it’s commonly knows as the biggest hit for The Steel Woods.
“Tailgate Blues” by Luke Bryan
This one wasn’t a single, so it didn’t have the success as other Luke Bryan songs, but it still wound up being a real fan favorite from Luke’s 2011 Tailgates and Tanlines album.
“Loose Strings” by Hailey Whitters
Another song that was a deep cut, but it was a deep cut that just about everybody I know LOVED from her 2020 album The Dream. The song was also a favorite of Gavin Adcock… he cut his own version last year for his 2025 album Own Worst Enemy.
