Phil Cook Shares “Buffalo,” Final Preview of New Album Out March 21st via Psychic Hotline

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5 March, 2025Print

Phil Cook Shares "Buffalo," Final Preview of New Album Out March 21st via Psychic Hotline

Appalachia Borealis Features a Collection of Piano Meditations Inspired by Bird Songs & Produced by Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, Bringing a Fresh Start to a Prolific Solo Career

Spring Tour Blends Audio, Video & Multimedia, Including Big Ears Festival, Headline Shows at NYC's Le Poisson Rouge, LA's Gold-Diggers & Many More

Photo by Graham Tolbert

Today, with the release of his latest single and video, "Buffalo," Phil Cook shares the final preview of his forthcoming solo album. Out March 21st on Psychic Hotline, Appalachia Borealis represents a renewed commitment to the first and most steadfast love of Cook's musical life: the piano. Largely inspired by bird songs, and produced by his childhood friend and bandmate – Bon Iver's Justin Vernon – this stark, serene, and deeply moving set of 11 meditations came to Cook during a fraught period of turmoil, sadness and personal changes. But ultimately, the record captures the light, hope and joy of looking for the other side. Flowing like a stream of consciousness, and spanning the emotional range of a full and open existence, Appalachia Borealis will evoke smiles, laughter and tears in equal measure. With the stirring arrangement, rousing melodies and pounding, two-handed interplay of "Buffalo," Phil Cook delivers "a tribute to the city and a few particular people who call it home," he explains. "I like dedication and thinking of specific loved ones for certain songs. Makes it more personal for me and keeps the feeling of home close at hand when I'm far away from home."

Listen to "Buffalo" via Psychic Hotline, and step into the river and snow with a new video by Daniel Fox Films: WATCH

Just like the birds that can be heard across the album, the essence of Appalachia Borealisis to rise and meet the day as best as one can, no matter how uncertain and strange the moment may seem. While "Buffalo" honors a different city, all of these songs began at the edge of the forest in North Carolina's Piedmont region, where Phil Cook was greeted each morning by those aviary symphonies, collecting voice memos and improvising along. He then moved to Durham, took lessons from Southern Gospel great Chuckey Robinson, and in April 2024, he returned to his Wisconsin hometown, and recorded the album at April Base. The storied studio is a place he has made dozens of records over the last 15 years, but never one like Appalachia Borealis.

As an artist, band member and gregarious collaborator who has worked with 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, Nathaniel Rateliff and more, Appalachia Borealis is both the culmination of Phil Cook's life thus far, and the beginning of a career that is recommitted to the instrument that guided him for decades.

"Buffalo" arrives on the heels of "Dawn Birds," "Appalachia Borealis" and a reimagining of Gillian Welch's "I Made A Lovers Prayer," all of which are part of the album's larger journey of growth and becoming. Later this month, following the release of Appalachia Borealis, Phil Cook will bring the songs that started on a windowsill to a much wider world. Kicking off with a performance at Big Ears Festival, his US solo tour will then include stops at New York City's Le Poisson Rouge, Los Angeles' Gold-Diggers, and 15 other shows throughout the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast. Unfolding in three acts of audio, video and multimedia, each performance will reveal untold parts of his life, in hopes that the audience walks away feeling reconnected with themselves. Find the list of dates below, and tickets at philcookmusic.com.