Cotton Bird is an Alabama Music Maker producing sweet sounds from ‘Peach Town’
Sarah Looney and Walon Smith are the songwriting duo at the heart of Cotton Bird. (contributed)
The Southern pop-rock of Cotton Bird may not be what you’d expect for a band based in Clanton. In their live shows, they perform their own songs and cover favorites from their childhood – Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and others.
Co-lead singer-songwriter Walon Smith remembers how the music he was interested in while growing up was considered different and unusual.
Throughout Smith’s youth in Clanton, his tastes in music ranged from childhood Jackson Five tunes to the Beatles during high school. He soon picked up his father’s old guitar, and it wasn’t long before he was teaching himself to play.
“In my high school, the fact that I was into the Beatles was an odd thing,” Smith recalls. “Everyone else was into what was currently on the radio and a lot of country music. While I like that as well, I like music from every genre.”
Smith’s songwriting partner is Sarah Looney. The daughter of a singer and songwriter, Looney was born into a life filled with music. She remembers singing and dancing about in her living room as a young child. After studying theater at Troy University, she decided to further pursue her love of singing and performing onto the concert stage.
Cotton Bird is a peach of an Alabama Music Maker from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
When they perform as a full band, Smith and Looney enlist the talents of well-known Birmingham rockers Eric Onimus on bass and Leif Bondarenko on drums. Smith and Looney formed Cotton Bird soon after they were introduced to each other six years ago at one of Smith’s gigs at the 1048 Jazz and Blues Club in Montgomery. Smith’s previous musical relationships with Onimus and Bondarenko resulted in the addition of the two seasoned instrumentalists.
“The thing I like most about performing and being in a band is working with other people of like-minded influences and ambitions and making music together. That’s incredible,” Looney says. Along with singing her favorite songs, she says that playing with her bandmates is one of the highlights of her musical career.
“I’m the luckiest one in the band because they have been playing together and separately for decades. Getting to listen to the three of them play and knowing I get to be a part of that – that’s my favorite part,” she says.
Cotton Bird’s songwriting process is a combination of personal narratives and the uncovering of stories that are lying deep within, waiting to be told. Their intention is to tell these stories that connect and enable listeners to relate to their music.
Cotton Bird’s debut album is set to release in 2018.
“We aim for continued evolution. The band you see now may not be the band you’ll find in two years,” Looney says. “We believe, in music, you either evolve or go extinct. We continually look for inspiration in our songwriting and keep art ever present in our minds.”
Stay in tune with Cottonbird’s live shows and album release at:
