June 7, 2025 • 23 mins
Join Lynn Hoffman for this classic replay of an episode of Music Saved Me with singer-songwriter Danielia Cotton. You'll adore her honesty and spirit and she embodies the core values of this podcast. If you like this podcast kindly share it with your friends.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Music Saved Me. There are times a song will come
to me so fast I can't write, and that's when
we know. We call it the song ads. And you
write and like when somebody says talk to you like
no no, no, no no, because if I forget that note,
I'll never get it back. It's like, if it's given
to you, you have to stop and serve it or
you forget it.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm Lynn Hoffman and welcome to the Music Saved Me Podcast,
the podcast that delves deep into the power of music. Now,
if you love this podcast, please spread the word. Thank
you so much and share this episode with others if
you don't mind. We also work with a very proud
supporters of an organization called Musicians on Call and all
(00:37):
the wonderful great work they do that showcases the power
of music. Our guest today is Danelia Cotton, an award
winning musician, singer songwriter known for her trademark gritty, rich
and soulful blues and rock and Americana. And she also
has some new music out that we're going to talk about.
But she's also an artist who deeply knows firsthand about
(01:01):
the power of music. Danelia, Welcome to Music saved me.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
It's so great to have you. I want to start
off with a quote from Guitar World about you, because
I just think that it really gets to the heart
of why we're together today. Danelia Cotton, this is let's
start with a quote. Danelia Cotton has not had it easy,
but lucky for us, she channels her pain and suffering
(01:29):
into kick ass musical creations that we can all enjoy.
I can't agree more with that quote. And my first question.
We have so much to talk about in so little time,
but my first question is how did your journey as
a cancer survivor shape you as an artist and as
a person.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I think the fact that I had it late in
life and that I first didn't understand the severity of it.
Like the doctor even said, this is the good cancer,
what cancer is good? But he's like, I can remove
your thyroid and then it's gone. And the chances of
most people who have thyroid cancer is that it never
comes back. So I still have two appointments a year
(02:11):
where they check my blood and we monitor that kind
of thing. But it's been good for me. That operation
gave me another octave, which was not that, which was
very unexpected. But I've always worked with a throat coach.
The first time I went on tour, I believe it
was an Italy tour, and it was like six days
(02:33):
in this Mercedes band driving around, which seems like, oh,
that's so awesome. It was deep and I just sang, sang, sang,
and then drank red wine and sang and talked and
came back with like a scab scabs on my vocal cords,
which weren't nodes. But I was like, whoa, it had
never happened. So when I went to a odorologist here
(02:55):
in New York, Rosemary Delouch, who I love, who's done
like Adele and what have you, she recommended a vocal
coach who I have seen ever since and been with
for over two decades. And I, you know, my advice
to everybody there is that just like an athlete and
you have coaches and you have spring training, your your
voice is a muscle, and so having somebody teach you
(03:17):
how to use it in the correct manner. Like we
can all have natural ability. But I was an actress,
but I went to school, and you take that natural
ability and you apply it to whatever method Stanislawski, You know,
like it's we can all have natural ability of anything, sports, vocal, whatever,
but you need that person to help you sort of
(03:37):
develop it and help it and shape it, you know.
So that changed the way that I sang just her,
and when I got done with the procedure, I went
back to her, and then we discovered that I had
some more range in there that might have been walked
by whatever wherever the cancer was, which was a bonus.
(03:59):
And I think more and more even after that, I
really adhere to the correct way of singing because I
believe it's just my Buddha kind of way. We're here
to serve others, and so a lot of times when
you sing, it isn't about you getting off. A lot
of times you sing technically to get them off, and
(04:19):
it's me taking my story and giving it to them
and then finding their way in it and figuring out
whatever it is that they want to do. And sometimes
that has to be very technical. I tend to like
to be able to go back into it, but doesn't
always happen that way. And it's when it's for the audience,
you technically sing so that they get it and they
(04:41):
go where they go, and you don't always get that side.
You get the thrill and knowing that you moved them.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, so wow, experiencing that hard enough. I mean, let
alone the fact that nobody ever talks about cancer. You know,
it's it's like this, it's like mental health. Cancer. You
don't discuss it. But how do we learn and how
can we you know, get past? And speaking of that,
having faced a similar situation, racism, I mean, cancer is
(05:12):
hard enough, but at a young age, it can be
very painful and terribly confusing, especially when you're growing up,
and it can also kind of bring you to a
crossroads in your life. You know, do I go one
way or the other? You know, am I going to
be stronger or weaker? How did that experience lead you
to music to help process what you were dealing with?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, I mean cancer came later, but when I first
started to run marathons, which I did to raise money
for cancer awareness because my husband's father's brother was one
of the four guys that did Woodstock and we called
him Jock, but his name was John Roberts. And I
ran the first marathon because he died of leukemia, and
(06:01):
then I kept running for cancer, and now my other
half is living with mantle cell lymphoma, which is incurable,
so it is in our house. Like this year, I
will tackle At fifty five, I tackled two marathons. Now
I'm about to do three in Chicago. I'll be I mean,
(06:24):
I know they don't like you and say it, but
I'll be fifty seven, but they are. I'm doing Chicago,
Savannah and then Texas. And I run because it helps
me not think about everything, because we had such a
journey to get to this place with this little girl
(06:46):
that we had at fifty and I just felt like
the world everything was great and then bam, really Karma,
what did I do? And here's cancer re entering my
life again and the love of my life. But like
running and raising money and awareness has saved me. It's
(07:07):
I found Neil Young running. I found a lot of
artists running just listening because I put my little doctor
beats in and I run and I work through whatever
it is from that day. I just get through it
all because I don't really I live incredibly healthy, even
you know, since the cancer. I don't drink, I don't smoke,
(07:29):
so it's very I just the running really helps and
I don't know. I find somewhere in that rhythm and
the music and everything when I go walk back into
my house and greet my six year old or my
other half, who's usually in a good mood, but he
is a legal aid defender for and he deals only
in the murders, so that can be heavy in our house.
(07:50):
And then he has his things, so if I don't
come in in a good place, I can tend to
set the tone for the entire house. So it is
kind of good that I'm pretty balanced at this point,
because I think he's got so much on his shoulders,
and she's just a little girl, and so she's just
going to be whatever she's going to be, and so
I'm sort of I have to come in and always
(08:12):
balance it out, which probably was not my strength early
in my life, but now I've learned how to do it.
And music, you know, that's another place I can go
to just siphon whatever it is, or reacycle whatever pain
i'm having into something that somebody inevitably comes up to
me and says something. Even the last perfour months, a
(08:34):
painter I was going to quit, and I realize I
have some of her art and my walls that she was,
you know, inspired by me. I'm inspired by her and
somehow I touched her, she touched me, and that's kind
of what you live for those moments. So yeah, so
it's I mean, there's just so much, but everything is
(08:56):
shaped me.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Answer remains a huge part of my life because until
they find a cure for what he has, it is
what it is. But I don't think about it every day,
and you know, I just wake up because the fact
is all of us could walk out the door and
I have one hundred and three year old grandmother who
is alive, and all five generations of my family are alive,
and so she'll tell you some story. Yeah, yeah, I
(09:36):
mean it led to the newest project, which is a
tribute to Charlie Pride, which is another genre I never
thought i'd go into. But my grandfather where I was raised, like,
my first album was called small White Town. It was
a small town, yeah, and it was primarily occupied but
(09:57):
not my color. But that so I found music. I mean,
people are like, how did a girl that looks like you?
They expect me to sing R and B or something,
And I walked out with rock and I said, I
wanted to have blond hair and blue eyes and I didn't.
And I heard rock and it sounded how it sounded
exactly how I felt. Boom. It was love at first
or first listen in first bar, and I was like, oh,
(10:19):
that's how I feel. And there I was. So it was,
you know, it wasn't that I wasn't, you know, exposed
to Stevie Wonder songs in the Key of Life, but
not a lot of the music that most kids who
were raised in a more black neighborhood. I was, you know,
exposed to Jonathan Winters and Bonnie Raid and you know
early Choka Khan, and my brother was listening to Todd
(10:40):
run Grant and you know Foreigner and Zeppelin. I mean,
it was just there was. And then my aunts were
backup singers and she had like a Dan Fogelbulga album.
Everything around me was intense. And then college I studied
with a jazz trumpet player who made me like he's like,
Holy Grail is the Johnny Hartman John Coltrane album. So
I was luckily around a lot, and I didn't feel
(11:03):
that I had to define myself by one particular thing.
So it doesn't it's not odd to me that I
would do this next project. You know, a song is
a song. You know it's going to be what it's
going to be, And all music is sort of in
some way inevitably influenced by another genre. So I don't know.
It's kind of a long answer to that.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I covered a lot of stuff there, and what was
my next question would be? Do you believe that there
is a healing power in music? And if you do,
can you help me pinpoint it? Because it's words, it's melody,
it's vibration. I mean, there are so many things that
happen because of it. Have you been able to figure
(11:49):
out what it exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Knows that you know? It's just like being in a
black church and the choir starts and there's one person
standing up and everybody gets like ohh and they feel
the spirit. You can't really pinpoint it, but I mean
even biblically music singing, that gift is one of the
highest that you can be blessed with. And so for me,
(12:13):
oh yeah, it's where you can go. It is a
place to go and live when reality is either overwhelming
or too intense. It's a place to hide, it's a
place to revel in. It's a place to dance, and
it's a place to sort of be whatever it is
you want to be. And it can take you to
(12:34):
a high place, it can take you to a low place.
But I mean music is literally it transports on many
levels and in many ways. It can make people. I
mean in religions, it's always inspirational, in churches and synagogues
and what have you. I mean, it is a serious tool.
(12:55):
It is a high it's a deep thing. So I
think I feel blessed to be blessed with you know,
whatever it is. And there are times a song will
come to me so fast I can't write, and that
that's when we know. We call it the song ads.
And you write and like when somebody says talk to
you like no no, no, no no, Because if I forget
(13:17):
that note, I'll never get it back. It's like if
it's given to you, you have to stop and serve
it or you'd forget it. It's like the phone. The
best thing about the iPhone is that I could be
somewhere and you sing the melody. Keith Regers the famous
story about him having the tape recorder next to his
bed and he sang hyeah, you know, get no satisfaction
with somewhere in there on one of the tapes, and
(13:38):
then he hit it the next day and it was
there because it was right next to his bed, so
it could come to you at any time. It definitely
feels like a gift. And sometimes you were like, I
wrote that, and you know, so it does feel that way,
but it's definitely I go there. I mean, music was
everything for me as a kid. It helped me get out,
(14:00):
It helped me not have to be in my reality
or anything dark. It helped me fly when I couldn't.
So yeah, I have immense respects for it.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
You come from a huge music state, New Jersey. There's
so much that that you were surrounded by pretty much everything,
and also a place that you had to work hard
and you know, things that influenced you when you were
younger came from probably what you grew up around, which
seems to me that you were able to really, you know,
(14:34):
work your way through it through music. I'm curious, was
it led Zeppelin that you were the first huge family.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I mean I liked the one rock group where I
heard the song and I was like, and you think
it sometimes it would be like the most skilled singer
was I heard. I remember listening driving up state and
Ruby Tuesday came on on a tape and I don't
know like I was. It was like I was in
(15:04):
a trance and it's Mick Jagger. So it's you know,
which is my sort of issue today, was singing. It
isn't about runs and or my niece would say, don't
say that, okay, So I take that back. A person
with one octave can do so much. It's what you
(15:24):
do with it. It's telling the story and so it
isn't so much a technical thing. It's a thing which
I hope we don't lose that some older artists have.
That's just extraordinary. I was lucky early in my career
to go out with a lot of people. But I
(15:44):
remember going to see going to a concert in Colorado
and there was Chemo and there was all these people
performing and Joe Cocker got up and it was like,
it's maybe he's got one octave he was. I never
sat down, I was. He looked first. He was so intense.
I thought he was going to just combust and blow up.
It was so much energy. It was like nothing I
(16:07):
have ever seen, and it was I'll never forget it,
and that is like, that's what you do, that's what
you do, and so he connected. It was just it
was a power like nothing else. So it isn't it's
just it is what it is. I mean, Taylor Swift
doesn't do one run and she's you know, she's captivating
(16:29):
you know, billion people. So it's some people have the thing,
they tell, the story, they connect. It's the thing, just
like whatever it is. And I think if you get
far from that, then you've lost the art of what
it is to do what we do and the beautiful
thing that we can do with what we do. And
I think it's the calling of those who do it,
(16:49):
and that is it's far more than skill, and it's
much more than that. It's telling a story. It's like
inspire the human spirit, it's healing the human spirit. It's
a lot, it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
When did you first realize that your music affected people
in a way that you probably didn't expect.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I mean touring and you finally get in front of
big audiences and you're like, whoa and they sing your
song back. It's deep. But I think the first time
was an artist who came up to me early in
my first tour and said she couldn't paint, and she
put on Shame, a song on my first album, and
then she painted and I didn't even know what to say,
(17:34):
like she was choked up. I was choked up, and
I was just like wow, like you know, or and
then it just started along the way somebody pulls you
aside and tells you how something made them realize something
and they made the change, or it just yeah, it
had a profound effect in a moment in their life
(17:55):
that enabled them to either break a cycle or something.
And that's where you're like whoa. And then as an
artist that it pushes you to really take a look
at what you're writing and the stories that you're telling.
And the way I craft a song now is much different.
I don't do it as like, not that I ever
did it carelessly, but I sort of just say, oh,
(18:17):
that's good. Now. I think about the art of it
and the power of what it can do and what
you want to say and what I want to say,
And if I only get one last song, what would
I say or how do I want the person listening
to it to feel? And that's it. That's kind of
where I go now, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Well, on keeping on that and I we'll wrap it
up with this last question. What allows you I always
compare it to birthing a child, But when you're putting
your music out there for people to judge, it's not
an easy thing, and anyone who thinks it is doesn't understand.
And so being as difficult as it is what allows
(18:58):
you to be so transparent with your stories and sharing
with people and putting it out there each time you
do it. It's kind of a risk, it.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Is, but it's important to me to be able to
tell a story and for it to be moving. So
I'm careful about what I choose, which I said early
in an interview with MPR that which I learned actually
from acting. I don't go into moments that I can't
safely get in and out of, and so if I
haven't made peace with it, there's no way for me
to put it out there. And when an artist makes
(19:30):
a mistake of writing something that is really not something
that they've dealt with, you can see it. You don't
know what it is, but it makes your uncomfortable. It is,
I think. So I choose moments that I have had
and worked and moved through, and then this is that
story and I can go in and out of there
in a way that is powerful and valuable for the
(19:51):
listener at least that's what I think that. I mean,
that's kind of a rule of thumb for me, and
you know that you have to be and if I
can't move safely in and out of it, then it's
going to have an effect that you can't explain and
you don't like it. So I just try to, Yeah,
and I have just I can only speak from where
(20:12):
I know a moment that I've moved through and that
has done something or changed me, and that's all. And
I hope that you can get what it did for me,
or that I can show you this thing that I
figured out too. So yeah, but I think clearly about songs,
and you know, you put yourself out there. It's you
hope when people don't like it, you just let it go.
(20:33):
In the beginning, it was a little bit different, but
you know, I did acting, so you get how many
times people tell you're not right for the part. So
I was kind of used to that part and this
just I don't know, I've been lucky so far. Once
or twice somebody said somewhere. I was like, ooh, ouch.
But you know, everybody's entitled to their opinion. But yeah,
(20:57):
I definitely try to choose things that I've made peace with,
whether it was big or Somon.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
It's in your DNA. Isn't it like you're tough?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I mean Springsteen we're all talking about. Yeah, it's like
we're all trying to get out. I mean, we love Jersey,
but we want to get out of Jersey. But we
want to, you know, see the world. But we're still
but Jersey made us who we are. Okay, It's yeah,
there's a lot. It's a lot.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
That exact quote you said came out of the mouth
one blondie also from New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
So the World Company.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yes, where can people find you and tell us about
your tour? Your most current tour.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
So you can find me. Danelia Cotton is such a
rare name that at Danelia Cotton at Instagram, at TikTok,
Dania Cotton website, it's all Danielia gut. But I will
be in Nashville next month during the Americana Fest and
I'm going to be one of the people headlining at Papapalooza,
(22:02):
which is kind of awesome during the Americana Fest that Saturday,
and I will be at Stephen Talkhouse out here back
in the Hamptons on the twenty six Beautiful the Hampson's
Beautiful like in the Fall. I'm trying to think that's
kind of what I know so far. The EP is
(22:22):
about to drop on the twenty ninth, and it is country,
but it's definitely Danelia. It's me sort of once again
going into another genre, and I like country. They tell
stories and it's I don't know that I can get into.
So that's great. And the you know, the only thing
I say is that this is a new age of
(22:43):
we have. You know, in this country, an older group
is what was considered old is sort of now running
the country. And so I hope for women and for
young girls. I took the long route. I went to college.
You know, I've had a career, I had some time,
I built a family, and I'm just now sort of
hitting a peek at this age, which means that you know,
(23:06):
you take care of yourself. It's different. We have different
tools in different ways to take care of us now.
So we go longer and you can live your life
and you can do some of those things that you
didn't have. There's no rush to the finish line. Just
take care of yourself and you can do it. You
can go there. I'd like that. Well.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, Danelia Cotton, you are truly inspiring with your story,
your music, and everything going on with you. I wish
you nothing but the best in your future and it
seems to me that you're on to great things and
continue on that path, and please come back and see
us again.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Thank you for being on music Save Me No, Thank
you so much. Thank you
Music Saved Me. There are times a song will come
to me so fast I can't write, and that's when
we know. We call it the song ads. And you
write and like when somebody says talk to you like
no no, no, no no, because if I forget that note,
I'll never get it back. It's like, if it's given
to you, you have to stop and serve it or
you forget it.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm Lynn Hoffman and welcome to the Music Saved Me Podcast,
the podcast that delves deep into the power of music. Now,
if you love this podcast, please spread the word. Thank
you so much and share this episode with others if
you don't mind. We also work with a very proud
supporters of an organization called Musicians on Call and all
(00:37):
the wonderful great work they do that showcases the power
of music. Our guest today is Danelia Cotton, an award
winning musician, singer songwriter known for her trademark gritty, rich
and soulful blues and rock and Americana. And she also
has some new music out that we're going to talk about.
But she's also an artist who deeply knows firsthand about
(01:01):
the power of music. Danelia, Welcome to Music saved me.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
It's so great to have you. I want to start
off with a quote from Guitar World about you, because
I just think that it really gets to the heart
of why we're together today. Danelia Cotton, this is let's
start with a quote. Danelia Cotton has not had it easy,
but lucky for us, she channels her pain and suffering
(01:29):
into kick ass musical creations that we can all enjoy.
I can't agree more with that quote. And my first question.
We have so much to talk about in so little time,
but my first question is how did your journey as
a cancer survivor shape you as an artist and as
a person.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I think the fact that I had it late in
life and that I first didn't understand the severity of it.
Like the doctor even said, this is the good cancer,
what cancer is good? But he's like, I can remove
your thyroid and then it's gone. And the chances of
most people who have thyroid cancer is that it never
comes back. So I still have two appointments a year
(02:11):
where they check my blood and we monitor that kind
of thing. But it's been good for me. That operation
gave me another octave, which was not that, which was
very unexpected. But I've always worked with a throat coach.
The first time I went on tour, I believe it
was an Italy tour, and it was like six days
(02:33):
in this Mercedes band driving around, which seems like, oh,
that's so awesome. It was deep and I just sang, sang, sang,
and then drank red wine and sang and talked and
came back with like a scab scabs on my vocal cords,
which weren't nodes. But I was like, whoa, it had
never happened. So when I went to a odorologist here
(02:55):
in New York, Rosemary Delouch, who I love, who's done
like Adele and what have you, she recommended a vocal
coach who I have seen ever since and been with
for over two decades. And I, you know, my advice
to everybody there is that just like an athlete and
you have coaches and you have spring training, your your
voice is a muscle, and so having somebody teach you
(03:17):
how to use it in the correct manner. Like we
can all have natural ability. But I was an actress,
but I went to school, and you take that natural
ability and you apply it to whatever method Stanislawski, You know,
like it's we can all have natural ability of anything, sports, vocal, whatever,
but you need that person to help you sort of
(03:37):
develop it and help it and shape it, you know.
So that changed the way that I sang just her,
and when I got done with the procedure, I went
back to her, and then we discovered that I had
some more range in there that might have been walked
by whatever wherever the cancer was, which was a bonus.
(03:59):
And I think more and more even after that, I
really adhere to the correct way of singing because I
believe it's just my Buddha kind of way. We're here
to serve others, and so a lot of times when
you sing, it isn't about you getting off. A lot
of times you sing technically to get them off, and
(04:19):
it's me taking my story and giving it to them
and then finding their way in it and figuring out
whatever it is that they want to do. And sometimes
that has to be very technical. I tend to like
to be able to go back into it, but doesn't
always happen that way. And it's when it's for the audience,
you technically sing so that they get it and they
(04:41):
go where they go, and you don't always get that side.
You get the thrill and knowing that you moved them.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, so wow, experiencing that hard enough. I mean, let
alone the fact that nobody ever talks about cancer. You know,
it's it's like this, it's like mental health. Cancer. You
don't discuss it. But how do we learn and how
can we you know, get past? And speaking of that,
having faced a similar situation, racism, I mean, cancer is
(05:12):
hard enough, but at a young age, it can be
very painful and terribly confusing, especially when you're growing up,
and it can also kind of bring you to a
crossroads in your life. You know, do I go one
way or the other? You know, am I going to
be stronger or weaker? How did that experience lead you
to music to help process what you were dealing with?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, I mean cancer came later, but when I first
started to run marathons, which I did to raise money
for cancer awareness because my husband's father's brother was one
of the four guys that did Woodstock and we called
him Jock, but his name was John Roberts. And I
ran the first marathon because he died of leukemia, and
(06:01):
then I kept running for cancer, and now my other
half is living with mantle cell lymphoma, which is incurable,
so it is in our house. Like this year, I
will tackle At fifty five, I tackled two marathons. Now
I'm about to do three in Chicago. I'll be I mean,
(06:24):
I know they don't like you and say it, but
I'll be fifty seven, but they are. I'm doing Chicago,
Savannah and then Texas. And I run because it helps
me not think about everything, because we had such a
journey to get to this place with this little girl
(06:46):
that we had at fifty and I just felt like
the world everything was great and then bam, really Karma,
what did I do? And here's cancer re entering my
life again and the love of my life. But like
running and raising money and awareness has saved me. It's
(07:07):
I found Neil Young running. I found a lot of
artists running just listening because I put my little doctor
beats in and I run and I work through whatever
it is from that day. I just get through it
all because I don't really I live incredibly healthy, even
you know, since the cancer. I don't drink, I don't smoke,
(07:29):
so it's very I just the running really helps and
I don't know. I find somewhere in that rhythm and
the music and everything when I go walk back into
my house and greet my six year old or my
other half, who's usually in a good mood, but he
is a legal aid defender for and he deals only
in the murders, so that can be heavy in our house.
(07:50):
And then he has his things, so if I don't
come in in a good place, I can tend to
set the tone for the entire house. So it is
kind of good that I'm pretty balanced at this point,
because I think he's got so much on his shoulders,
and she's just a little girl, and so she's just
going to be whatever she's going to be, and so
I'm sort of I have to come in and always
(08:12):
balance it out, which probably was not my strength early
in my life, but now I've learned how to do it.
And music, you know, that's another place I can go
to just siphon whatever it is, or reacycle whatever pain
i'm having into something that somebody inevitably comes up to
me and says something. Even the last perfour months, a
(08:34):
painter I was going to quit, and I realize I
have some of her art and my walls that she was,
you know, inspired by me. I'm inspired by her and
somehow I touched her, she touched me, and that's kind
of what you live for those moments. So yeah, so
it's I mean, there's just so much, but everything is
(08:56):
shaped me.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Answer remains a huge part of my life because until
they find a cure for what he has, it is
what it is. But I don't think about it every day,
and you know, I just wake up because the fact
is all of us could walk out the door and
I have one hundred and three year old grandmother who
is alive, and all five generations of my family are alive,
and so she'll tell you some story. Yeah, yeah, I
(09:36):
mean it led to the newest project, which is a
tribute to Charlie Pride, which is another genre I never
thought i'd go into. But my grandfather where I was raised, like,
my first album was called small White Town. It was
a small town, yeah, and it was primarily occupied but
(09:57):
not my color. But that so I found music. I mean,
people are like, how did a girl that looks like you?
They expect me to sing R and B or something,
And I walked out with rock and I said, I
wanted to have blond hair and blue eyes and I didn't.
And I heard rock and it sounded how it sounded
exactly how I felt. Boom. It was love at first
or first listen in first bar, and I was like, oh,
(10:19):
that's how I feel. And there I was. So it was,
you know, it wasn't that I wasn't, you know, exposed
to Stevie Wonder songs in the Key of Life, but
not a lot of the music that most kids who
were raised in a more black neighborhood. I was, you know,
exposed to Jonathan Winters and Bonnie Raid and you know
early Choka Khan, and my brother was listening to Todd
(10:40):
run Grant and you know Foreigner and Zeppelin. I mean,
it was just there was. And then my aunts were
backup singers and she had like a Dan Fogelbulga album.
Everything around me was intense. And then college I studied
with a jazz trumpet player who made me like he's like,
Holy Grail is the Johnny Hartman John Coltrane album. So
I was luckily around a lot, and I didn't feel
(11:03):
that I had to define myself by one particular thing.
So it doesn't it's not odd to me that I
would do this next project. You know, a song is
a song. You know it's going to be what it's
going to be, And all music is sort of in
some way inevitably influenced by another genre. So I don't know.
It's kind of a long answer to that.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I covered a lot of stuff there, and what was
my next question would be? Do you believe that there
is a healing power in music? And if you do,
can you help me pinpoint it? Because it's words, it's melody,
it's vibration. I mean, there are so many things that
happen because of it. Have you been able to figure
(11:49):
out what it exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Knows that you know? It's just like being in a
black church and the choir starts and there's one person
standing up and everybody gets like ohh and they feel
the spirit. You can't really pinpoint it, but I mean
even biblically music singing, that gift is one of the
highest that you can be blessed with. And so for me,
(12:13):
oh yeah, it's where you can go. It is a
place to go and live when reality is either overwhelming
or too intense. It's a place to hide, it's a
place to revel in. It's a place to dance, and
it's a place to sort of be whatever it is
you want to be. And it can take you to
(12:34):
a high place, it can take you to a low place.
But I mean music is literally it transports on many
levels and in many ways. It can make people. I
mean in religions, it's always inspirational, in churches and synagogues
and what have you. I mean, it is a serious tool.
(12:55):
It is a high it's a deep thing. So I
think I feel blessed to be blessed with you know,
whatever it is. And there are times a song will
come to me so fast I can't write, and that
that's when we know. We call it the song ads.
And you write and like when somebody says talk to
you like no no, no, no no, Because if I forget
(13:17):
that note, I'll never get it back. It's like if
it's given to you, you have to stop and serve
it or you'd forget it. It's like the phone. The
best thing about the iPhone is that I could be
somewhere and you sing the melody. Keith Regers the famous
story about him having the tape recorder next to his
bed and he sang hyeah, you know, get no satisfaction
with somewhere in there on one of the tapes, and
(13:38):
then he hit it the next day and it was
there because it was right next to his bed, so
it could come to you at any time. It definitely
feels like a gift. And sometimes you were like, I
wrote that, and you know, so it does feel that way,
but it's definitely I go there. I mean, music was
everything for me as a kid. It helped me get out,
(14:00):
It helped me not have to be in my reality
or anything dark. It helped me fly when I couldn't.
So yeah, I have immense respects for it.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
You come from a huge music state, New Jersey. There's
so much that that you were surrounded by pretty much everything,
and also a place that you had to work hard
and you know, things that influenced you when you were
younger came from probably what you grew up around, which
seems to me that you were able to really, you know,
(14:34):
work your way through it through music. I'm curious, was
it led Zeppelin that you were the first huge family.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I mean I liked the one rock group where I
heard the song and I was like, and you think
it sometimes it would be like the most skilled singer
was I heard. I remember listening driving up state and
Ruby Tuesday came on on a tape and I don't
know like I was. It was like I was in
(15:04):
a trance and it's Mick Jagger. So it's you know,
which is my sort of issue today, was singing. It
isn't about runs and or my niece would say, don't
say that, okay, So I take that back. A person
with one octave can do so much. It's what you
(15:24):
do with it. It's telling the story and so it
isn't so much a technical thing. It's a thing which
I hope we don't lose that some older artists have.
That's just extraordinary. I was lucky early in my career
to go out with a lot of people. But I
(15:44):
remember going to see going to a concert in Colorado
and there was Chemo and there was all these people
performing and Joe Cocker got up and it was like,
it's maybe he's got one octave he was. I never
sat down, I was. He looked first. He was so intense.
I thought he was going to just combust and blow up.
It was so much energy. It was like nothing I
(16:07):
have ever seen, and it was I'll never forget it,
and that is like, that's what you do, that's what
you do, and so he connected. It was just it
was a power like nothing else. So it isn't it's
just it is what it is. I mean, Taylor Swift
doesn't do one run and she's you know, she's captivating
(16:29):
you know, billion people. So it's some people have the thing,
they tell, the story, they connect. It's the thing, just
like whatever it is. And I think if you get
far from that, then you've lost the art of what
it is to do what we do and the beautiful
thing that we can do with what we do. And
I think it's the calling of those who do it,
(16:49):
and that is it's far more than skill, and it's
much more than that. It's telling a story. It's like
inspire the human spirit, it's healing the human spirit. It's
a lot, it's a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
When did you first realize that your music affected people
in a way that you probably didn't expect.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I mean touring and you finally get in front of
big audiences and you're like, whoa and they sing your
song back. It's deep. But I think the first time
was an artist who came up to me early in
my first tour and said she couldn't paint, and she
put on Shame, a song on my first album, and
then she painted and I didn't even know what to say,
(17:34):
like she was choked up. I was choked up, and
I was just like wow, like you know, or and
then it just started along the way somebody pulls you
aside and tells you how something made them realize something
and they made the change, or it just yeah, it
had a profound effect in a moment in their life
(17:55):
that enabled them to either break a cycle or something.
And that's where you're like whoa. And then as an
artist that it pushes you to really take a look
at what you're writing and the stories that you're telling.
And the way I craft a song now is much different.
I don't do it as like, not that I ever
did it carelessly, but I sort of just say, oh,
(18:17):
that's good. Now. I think about the art of it
and the power of what it can do and what
you want to say and what I want to say,
And if I only get one last song, what would
I say or how do I want the person listening
to it to feel? And that's it. That's kind of
where I go now, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Well, on keeping on that and I we'll wrap it
up with this last question. What allows you I always
compare it to birthing a child, But when you're putting
your music out there for people to judge, it's not
an easy thing, and anyone who thinks it is doesn't understand.
And so being as difficult as it is what allows
(18:58):
you to be so transparent with your stories and sharing
with people and putting it out there each time you
do it. It's kind of a risk, it.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Is, but it's important to me to be able to
tell a story and for it to be moving. So
I'm careful about what I choose, which I said early
in an interview with MPR that which I learned actually
from acting. I don't go into moments that I can't
safely get in and out of, and so if I
haven't made peace with it, there's no way for me
to put it out there. And when an artist makes
(19:30):
a mistake of writing something that is really not something
that they've dealt with, you can see it. You don't
know what it is, but it makes your uncomfortable. It is,
I think. So I choose moments that I have had
and worked and moved through, and then this is that
story and I can go in and out of there
in a way that is powerful and valuable for the
(19:51):
listener at least that's what I think that. I mean,
that's kind of a rule of thumb for me, and
you know that you have to be and if I
can't move safely in and out of it, then it's
going to have an effect that you can't explain and
you don't like it. So I just try to, Yeah,
and I have just I can only speak from where
(20:12):
I know a moment that I've moved through and that
has done something or changed me, and that's all. And
I hope that you can get what it did for me,
or that I can show you this thing that I
figured out too. So yeah, but I think clearly about songs,
and you know, you put yourself out there. It's you
hope when people don't like it, you just let it go.
(20:33):
In the beginning, it was a little bit different, but
you know, I did acting, so you get how many
times people tell you're not right for the part. So
I was kind of used to that part and this
just I don't know, I've been lucky so far. Once
or twice somebody said somewhere. I was like, ooh, ouch.
But you know, everybody's entitled to their opinion. But yeah,
(20:57):
I definitely try to choose things that I've made peace with,
whether it was big or Somon.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
It's in your DNA. Isn't it like you're tough?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I mean Springsteen we're all talking about. Yeah, it's like
we're all trying to get out. I mean, we love Jersey,
but we want to get out of Jersey. But we
want to, you know, see the world. But we're still
but Jersey made us who we are. Okay, It's yeah,
there's a lot. It's a lot.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
That exact quote you said came out of the mouth
one blondie also from New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
So the World Company.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yes, where can people find you and tell us about
your tour? Your most current tour.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
So you can find me. Danelia Cotton is such a
rare name that at Danelia Cotton at Instagram, at TikTok,
Dania Cotton website, it's all Danielia gut. But I will
be in Nashville next month during the Americana Fest and
I'm going to be one of the people headlining at Papapalooza,
(22:02):
which is kind of awesome during the Americana Fest that Saturday,
and I will be at Stephen Talkhouse out here back
in the Hamptons on the twenty six Beautiful the Hampson's
Beautiful like in the Fall. I'm trying to think that's
kind of what I know so far. The EP is
(22:22):
about to drop on the twenty ninth, and it is country,
but it's definitely Danelia. It's me sort of once again
going into another genre, and I like country. They tell
stories and it's I don't know that I can get into.
So that's great. And the you know, the only thing
I say is that this is a new age of
(22:43):
we have. You know, in this country, an older group
is what was considered old is sort of now running
the country. And so I hope for women and for
young girls. I took the long route. I went to college.
You know, I've had a career, I had some time,
I built a family, and I'm just now sort of
hitting a peek at this age, which means that you know,
(23:06):
you take care of yourself. It's different. We have different
tools in different ways to take care of us now.
So we go longer and you can live your life
and you can do some of those things that you
didn't have. There's no rush to the finish line. Just
take care of yourself and you can do it. You
can go there. I'd like that. Well.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, Danelia Cotton, you are truly inspiring with your story,
your music, and everything going on with you. I wish
you nothing but the best in your future and it
seems to me that you're on to great things and
continue on that path, and please come back and see
us again.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Thank you for being on music Save Me No, Thank
you so much. Thank you
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