Marc Cohn


Marc Craig Cohn is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known for the song "Walking in Memphis", which was a Top 40 hit from his 1991 album Marc Cohn and was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards. Cohn won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1992. His other charting singles include "Silver Thunderbird", "True Companion", and "Walk Through the World".
In 2019, the Observer-Dispatch wrote the following about Cohn: "Deeply rooted in American rhythm and blues, soul and gospel, gifted with a storyteller’s eye and ear, and possessing one of the most expressive and soulful voices in modern music, Cohn draws from real-life to evoke common human feelings of love, hope, faith, joy and heartbreak".
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Early life

Cohn was born on July 5, 1959 in Cleveland, Ohio. He is Jewish, he has 3 older brothers, Alan, Warren, and Steven Samuel Cohn who died in 2014 at the age of 66. Cohn's mother Sarane Cohn died when he was two years old at the age of 44 and his father Harry A. Cohn died when he was 13 at the age of 72. Following the deaths of his parents, Cohn was raised by his stepmother, Ruth H. Cohn
As a child, Cohn became "obsessed" with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, and the Band. He learned to play guitar and started writing songs when he was in junior high school, playing and singing with a local band called Doanbrook Hotel. In 1977, Cohn graduated from Beachwood High School in Beachwood, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb. While attending Oberlin College, he taught himself to play the piano.

Career

Cohn transferred to UCLA and began to perform in Los Angeles-area coffeehouses. His early career featured work as a songwriter, as a session musician, and in a cover band called the Supreme Court. He played at Caroline Kennedy's wedding in 1986. Cohn played piano on Tracy Chapman's second album, Crossroads, and this experience led to him signing a contract with Atlantic Records.
Cohn released his debut solo album, Marc Cohn, in February 1991. The album was successful due to the hit single "Walking in Memphis". Cohn has said that "Walking in Memphis" is "100 percent autobiographical". He has described it as a song about "a Jewish gospel-music-lover", and added that "the song is about more than just a place; it's about a kind of spiritual awakening, one of those trips where you're different when you leave." He was inspired to write "Walking in Memphis" by a 1985 visit to the Memphis, Tennessee area. At the time, he was working as a session singer in New York City while pursuing a recording contract. "Walking in Memphis" was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal at the 34th Annual [Grammy Awards] and reached number 13 in 1991 on the Billboard Hot 100. As of 2016, it remains Cohn's only Top 40 hit.
Marc Cohn was certified gold by the RIAA in February 1992 and was certified platinum in 1996. The album featured two other charting singles: "Silver Thunderbird" and "True Companion". Cohn won the 1992 Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
In May 1993, Cohn released his second studio album, The Rainy Season, which included notable guest appearances by David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Bonnie Raitt. "Walk Through the World", the first song from that album, reached the Top 30 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. Cohn released his third solo effort, Burning the Daze, in 1998. The compilation The Very Best of Marc Cohn was released in June 2006.
Cohn's track "Dance Back from the Grave", from the album Join the Parade, relates to the events of Hurricane Katrina and to the post-traumatic stress Cohn suffered after being shot in the head in an attempted carjacking in August 2005.
In 2010, Cohn returned with Listening Booth: 1970, a collection of covers of songs that were originally released during the titular year. The album peaked at number 28 on the Billboard 200 album chart. In addition to crossing genres from rock to soul to folk and pop, it featured vocal performances from India.Arie, Jim Lauderdale, Aimee Mann, and Kristina Train. As of September 2018, Listening Booth: 1970--which peaked at number 28--was Cohn's highest-charting album.
Cohn released his first original song in more than seven years, "The Coldest Corner in the World", in 2014. The song was the title track for the documentary Tree Man. Cohn released the album Careful What You Dream: Lost Songs and Rarities in 2016 in celebration of the 25th anniversary of his platinum-selling debut album. Cohn simultaneously released a bonus album, Evolution of a Record, which featured never-before-heard songs and demos. In 2017, Cohn worked with William Bell on his Grammy Award-winning album This Is Where I Live. He co-wrote several tracks on the album, including the opener, "The Three Of Me". Cohn also collaborated with the Blind Boys of Alabama on their Grammy-nominated song "Let My Mother Live".
In 2019, Cohn performed at Carnegie Hall at "The Music of Van Morrison" show, which benefited music education programs for the New York City school system. Other performers included Patti Smith, Glen Hansard, Bettye LaVette, Blind Boys of Alabama, and Josh Ritter. Cohn performed "Walking in Memphis" alongside Miley Cyrus at the 2019 Memphis in May Festival as part of the "More Together" Facebook campaign. "Walking in Memphis" was also the center of a national commercial for the "More Together" campaign. Cohn released Work to Do, a collaboration with the Blind Boys of Alabama, on August 9, 2019.

Personal life

Marriages and children

Cohn married designer Jennifer George, granddaughter of the famous cartoonist Rube Goldberg, on May 20, 1988. Cohn and George have two children; son Max, born c. 1991, and daughter Emily, born c. 1995. The marriage ended in divorce.
Cohn and ABC News journalist Elizabeth Vargas married on July 20, 2002. The pair met at the 1999 U.S. Open after Vargas sought an interview with Cohn's friend, Andre Agassi. They have two sons, Zachary and Samuel. Cohn and Vargas divorced in 2014, days after Vargas came out of rehabilitation for alcoholism for a third time.
Cohn's third wife is Lisa Cohn.

Health

On August 7, 2005, Cohn was shot in the head during an attempted carjacking in Denver, Colorado, while on a concert tour with Suzanne Vega. The bullet "barely missed Cohn's eye and lodged near his skull." Cohn survived and was hospitalized for observation, but was released after eight hours. According to Cohn, "Doctors told me I was the luckiest unlucky guy they had met in a long, long time." A police spokesperson surmised that the car's windshield may have significantly impeded the bullet's force, and added: "Frankly, I can't tell you how he survived." The shooter was sentenced to 36 years in prison.
On January 30, 2025, Cohn announced that he'd been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease about five years earlier.

Awards

Discography

EPs

  • ''Hi-Five: Marc Cohn''