Phil Cook Announces Appalachia Borealis, New Album Out March 21st on Psychic Hotline

Today, Phil Cook announces an album that confirms his commitment to the foremost love of his musical life: the piano. Out March 21st on Sylvan Esso's Psychic Hotline, and produced by Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, Appalachia Borealis is a set of 11 deeply moving meditations largely inspired by bird songs, which serves as both the culmination of his journey thus far, and the beginning of a devoted new solo career. As a founding member of DeYarmond Edison, Megafaun and Gayngs – and a gregarious collaborator who has contributed vastly and vitally to the work of everyone from Anaïs Mitchell, Hiss Golden Messenger, Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Blind Boys of Alabama and Waxahatchee to Bon Iver, Indigo Girls, The Japanese House, Mavis Staples and Travis Scott – Phil Cook has been at the center of so many sounds, styles and scenes since the start of the century. But on Appalachia Borealis, his approach is as stark, simple and serene as possible. During a fraught time packed with personal turmoil, sadness and change, he found a way forward, and figured out what mattered to him more than anything: Appalachia Borealis is about the hope, light, and joy of looking for the other side. 

Pre-order Appalachia Borealis, listen to the newly released title track and lead single, "Appalachia Borealis," and watch the music video: HERE 

"'Appalachia Borealisis' my favorite song I've written, written in a dreadfully torrential downpour on a particularly lonely and difficult day. A recording of loons calling on a lake at night enters on the last stanza, the moods exactly complementing one another respectfully. I don't believe I could've written this song in my 20s or 30s and I certainly couldn't have written it without experiencing some real losses in my life and the hole that remains in the aftermath. It heals me to play this song." - Phil Cook

While Phil Cook recorded the album at Wisconsin's April Base compound in April of last year – the same studio where he has helped make at least a dozen records over the last decade and a half – the roots of Appalachia Borealis date back to the fall of 2022. He was suddenly living alone at the edge of a field and forest in North Carolina's Piedmont region, greeted each morning by choruses of bird songs. Slowly he joined them, capturing voice memos and improvising in real time at the windowsill, on the piano, not knowing he was writing what would later become Appalachia Borealis. Recordings of those birds can still be heard at sporadic points across the album – on "Thrush Song," "Dawn Birds" and more – but the impression they made on the music is all-encompassing, motivating Cook to rise and meet the day with curiosity and willingness, no matter how uncertain the moment may seem. 

After a year, Phil Cook left Piedmont and moved to Durham, NC, honing the compositions and challenging his playing through lessons with the Southern gospel great, Chuckey Robinson. He found new clarity, sustained fewer notes, crowded less of his melodies and reimagined Gillian Welch's "I Made A Lovers Prayer," which appears on Appalachia Borealis alongside his 10 originals. In April of 2024, however, he returned to the place he was raised in Wisconsin's Chippewa Valley, and asked his lifelong friend and bandmate, Justin Vernon, to produce Appalachia Borealis, and capture the heart of the pieces that came to carry his soul. 

Recording along to the sounds of birds filling his headphones, Phil Cook and Justin Vernon achieved a 31-minute chronicling of evolution and becoming, equal parts tender and resilient, evoking smiles, laughter and tears. Where "Rise" opens the album with an embrace of ambiguity, "Appalachia Borealis" closes it with a sense of acceptance. In between comes the emotional range of a full and open existence.

Following the release of Appalachia Borealis, Phil Cook will head out on the road, bringing songs that started on a windowsill to a much wider world. Kicking off with a performance at Big Ears Festival, the first leg of his US solo tour will then include stops at New York City's Le Poisson Rouge, DC's Hamilton Live, Minneapolis' Icehour, Eau Claire's The Masonic and more, as well as a newly added run of West Coast dates that have just been announced today. Find the list below, and tickets at philcookmusic.com.

For more information, contact Matt Hanks, Greg Jakubik or Grace Fleisher at

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