Several times while listening to Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers’ newest CD, Pilgrimage, I got chills. Six times on the album, all track titles beginning with “The Pilgrim,” Mr. Gatlin (Larry, who’s backup singers are brothers Steve and Rudy) tells stories from friendships and time periods shared with the likes of Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie, Waylon and some of the musicians I look up to most.

I, too, have shared special moments with these cowboys, but it’s cool to hear about the interactions from one of the cowboys himself. Kristofferson and Kristen Kara, Larry Gatlin’s daughter, team up to sing backup on a newer version of “Sweet Becky Walker,” which was the eldest Gatlin brother’s first big hit.

The second bonus track on this disk, track 3, was in my top three for the album and might have been my favorite, “Penny Annie.” Along with “Sweet Becky Walker,” “Penny Annie” is from early in Gatlin’s career, and was written during the life and times of Johnny Cash.

From track 1 of Pilgrimage, Larry Gatlin speaks about some of Cash’s words in the liner notes of Gatlin’s first album, The Pilgrim.

“And now along comes this Pilgrim, Larry Gatlin. He’s kind of a proud banner bearer, and the banner ain’t his own. The Pilgrim has his heart for sale and soul in his songs, and the price is mighty cheap. He shared some of these songs with me, even on the day that he wrote them. I wish you could have looked down his throat with me the first time I heard him sing ‘Sweet Becky Walker’ and ‘Penny Annie.’ You would have seen soul and heard heart, and felt fine.”

After the first two songs – and like most music it’s an injustice to put a label on it, but it’s necessary to give those unfamiliar with the artist an idea – it’s a combination of country, folk and gospel, and what sticks out to me is Gatlin’s skill as a storyteller.

One particularly chilling track is “The Pilgrim: Little Tin Cup” in which Gatlin tells the story of his son’s birth, Joshua Cash Gatlin. So the story goes that Gatlin runs out of the delivery room and calls Johnny before anyone else, and Cash and June Carter were the first to show up. Johnny presented the son with a letter “he’d just written, and a little tin cup. The letter read, ‘If you’ll drink from the cup of Christ, you’ll never drink from the likes of this tin cup that I got from Folsom Prison.’”

That’s quite a story, although Gatlin’s telling of the story requires you to look past the dramatics of his voice that he uses to reenact the exchange (his boy “just discovered America”). But hey, if that’s how the exchange took place, I can’t blame him for this, it just makes the cynic wonder.

Pilgrimage reminds me of sitting around listening to the older country singers I mentioned above that my brother Josh and I both liked to listen to while sitting around in our college home, sharing beers and passing the evening with friends we’d never met.

I find this album a joy to listen to and a fresh peek back into my favorite country music time period. It’s produced, fittingly enough, by John Carter Cash.

What all is new on this album? 

“Mist of Desire,” “Wonderful Waste of Time” and “If I Could Just See You Now,” I don’t know if you can really call them remakes or not because it’s a different performance and we re-recorded them but those three songs were Alabama songs. They are there because I had something to do with writing. “Kissing a Fool,” I’m part writer on, that’s a new song … “A Million Times Today” I’m a writer on … a believe I counted up there are five remakes on there, and I don’t count the ones that I re-sang, remakes to me, but that’s perception I guess. 

I’m calling you from the Tennessee River, I’ve been out here fishing.

“If I Could Just See You Now,” that’s not new, that was on an Alabama album. But it didn’t get a lot of recognition so for all intents and purposes, it’s new. That, “Mist of Desire” and “Wonderful Waste of Time,” they were all about the same time (during the Alabama days).

How many albums is this for you since Alabama? 

This is actually about the fifth one. If you go to my website (www.JeffCook-AGB.com), click on store and click on music you can see what’s there (Jeff Cook & the Allstar Goodtime Band list of albums). The first one, Just Pickin’, is an instrumental thing. It’s just a collection of old greasy stuff I used to listen to when I was learning to play. 

When you set out to make this album, Ashes Won’t Burn, obviously you wanted to make something the people, your fans, would enjoy, but since you’ve already had a successful career with Alabama, does the focus change from making a successful album to something more personal – something more fulfilling to you as an artist? 

I think it can be both. I know, as you mention, that this group was put together to target the demographics of casinos, fairs and festival-type stuff. But you know, a hit record would be great, but I’m more into pleasing the fans. And it seems to be a big thing in the industry to say, “Oh, well that’s a remake,” but I might point out that Alabama had a number one with a remake, “Take Me Down,” which was done by Exile originally. A lot of people kind of forget that stuff. 

My philosophy is a good song is a good song is a good song, no matter when it was written. 

With some of the songs, like “Brick House,” it seems like an odd choice for a country album. What made you decide on that song? 

When we first started talking about that, the Commodores were going to be on it with us, and we just ran up against some time constraints and we just had to put it off to another song, another time (for them to be on the album). 

Writing process – do you have a special place you go or certain circumstances that inspire you? 

You know, I’m like a lot of people. Sometimes I wake up with a line on the mind, or somebody will say something and I’ll say, “Hey, that could be a song.” Or sometimes I’ll come up with a piece of music … there’s no cut and dry pattern for me. 

Where did you come up with the name Ashes Won’t Burn? 

That song was written by a guy named Bert Colwell, from Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, and that was sent to us back in the Alabama days, and it just kept getting pushed back to the back burner, and we never did do anything with it. I’m kind of glad it happened that way because it gave me some really good material for this CD. 

What’s your favorite song? 

You know, I tried to pick everything that I liked. I probably wouldn’t record anything I didn’t like, not like Alabama. I think the “I Feel Fine,” by the Beetles, that’s a classic guitar lick, it’s 44 years old, still a good one. 

If you notice it, I put a little tinge of banjo in there. Where the lead guitar comes in, the lead break, that’s done on a six-string, a twelve-string, a baritone guitar and a banjo, all simultaneously. At the very end of it, there’s a tinge of banjo back in there if you listen to it.

What does putting out an album like this do for you that was missing in Alabama? How is it different? 

I’m in complete control. It was interesting, I ran into one of the engineers who worked on the early Alabama stuff, and I played it for him and his terms were, “This is refreshing.” It was an interesting word, and I think I’ll use it. 

It’s not the same pickers. Just because you’re in a band on the road don’t mean you get to work in the studio, they have studio pickers. And a lot of the same people, a lot of the same style, play a lot of the different records out there. 

It seems to me, you know with country radio, it sounds the same, and I don’t know if it’s the compression they use in recording or because it’s the same players, a lot of the same players, but it sounds the same. 

Are you glad it ended with Alabama when it did? 

I think it was 2004.Yes. I think it was time for a change, a break, or whatever. 

Are you touring for this album?

Oh yeah, we’ve been out there on the road. We’ve played at the Hard Rock, a lot of shows in Florida, some Texas stuff, even in Minnesota a time or two. 

Do you have a favorite city or venue? 

Just as long as they have a big building and a lot of people, that’s all I need.

I consider myself an Alabama fan, so I was pretty excited when a press release from Absolute Publicity arrived in my mailbox, describing a new album recently released by artist Jeff Cook, a founding member of Alabama. As a youngster, I have distinct memories of Alabama songs (“Thistlehair the Christmas Bear”), blasting through the speakers that were hooked up to the record player at our farmhouse during Christmastime or housecleaning time. My mom loved Alabama, and still does to this day. They were an iconic country music band that helped diversify the genre until their farewell tour in 2003.

My own Alabama favorites include “Dixieland Delight,” “Mountain Music” and “Song of the South.” But, when the release arrived, I was unfamiliar with Jeff Cook and his contributions to a group that I’ve known and liked since childhood. On an Alabama website, I read that Cook was the lead guitarist and fiddler for the group. I was excited, since through the years I’ve been known to dance, and occasionally stomp, to the sound of that fiddle.

But you must remember when listening to Ashes Won’t Burn by Jeff Cook and the Allstar Goodtime Band, this isn’t Alabama, and you can’t judge it as such. It is more electric guitar and less fiddle, which to me was what Alabama was about.

Most of the songs, I believe all except “Mist of Desire” and “Kissing a Fool,” performed by Cook, are cover songs. I really enjoyed Cook’s cover of “I Feel Fine” (John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles). Other notable covers are Ronnie Farmer’s rendition of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (Bob Dylan), R.K. Brown’s interesting cover of “Brick House” (The Commodores) and Link Detten’s version of “All Right Now” (originally performed by Andy Fraser and Paul Rodgers, and later adopted by Queen). Most entertaining to me was Cook’s performance of “Monkey Around” (Delbert McClinton, Gary Nicholson and Benmont Tench III).

I say “Brick House” was interesting because, the same as the majority of people who seek out this album because of Cook, I think Alabama and I think country music. So I think of Cook as a country musician and turned this album on assuming I was in for a lot of twang and a lot of fiddle. But just like Alabama, which constantly varied their approach and attracted fans from different ethnic backgrounds and musical tastes, Cook proves his expansive and diverse talent as a musician. Just don’t buy Ashes Won’t Burn because you want a second-coming of Alabama.

I’ll post an interview with Cook in the coming days.