Artists:Stephen Cohen

Stephen Cohen is a performing artist, composer, guitarist, visual artist and award-winning songwriter. His newest CD, Here Comes the Band, is a children's album, suitable for adults, and vice versa. It includes a 20 page illustrated booklet with paintings and drawings by Christopher Shotola-Hardt and lyrics and activities.

His first album, on vinyl, The Tree People, which he recorded in 1979 in Eugene, has been rediscovered around the world and has been reissued by Tiliqua Records. Tiliqua will be issuing a second Tree People album, Human Voices, in 2008. In January 2008, The Numero Group will release a compliation of acoustic guitar music from the 60's and 70's which includes Stephen's solo guitar piece, No More School, from the first Tree People album. In early 2008, Guerssen Records will release a limited edition vinyl re-issue of The Tree People. Stephen has created a blog (treepeoplechronicles.blogspot.com) documenting the history and new interest in that album.

Stephen's CD, Stephen and the Talk Talk Band , was released in 2004. Hear what some of the guest artists have to say about Stephen and the Talk Talk Band and link to their web sites.

Stephen's song It's My Story, from Stephen and the Talk Talk Band, will be featured in The Story Pouch, a computer animated film by Todd Kesterson, now in production in Oregon. Two songs from his previous CD, real life and fiction, were released as a 7" vinyl, 45 rpm single in the United Kingdom by Ethbo Music. Songs and instrumental pieces from his recordings have received radio play worldwide.

Other recordings include Many Hats, Bridges of This Town, (a one song CD about the bridges of Portland in which for the CD release event for Bridges of This Town. Stephen had his audience meet him on the esplanade under the Steel Bridge and then led everyone to a secret location overlooking the Portland bridges where he performed the song), and The Golden Desert (a recording of desert sounds in the New Directions series Enviromusic for which Stephen composed and recorded guitar and percussion music on commission). Stephen has also produced 5 CDs of original music by young people from a series of residencies over the last 7 years in which he assists youth in creating instruments out of recycled and found objects, helps them compose music and lyrics, and produces a CD of the results.

Stephen's performances across the United States include the Kerrville New Folk Awards Concert in Texas; First Night (New Year's Festival) in Providence (R.I.), the Juan de Fuca Festival (Port Angeles, Washington), the Arts in Nature Festival (West Seattle), the Northwest Folklife Festival (Seattle), the Coffee Gallery Backstage (Altadena, Ca..), the Acoustic Roots Concert series (Fredericksburg, Va.), the Bitter End (New York City), the Sidewalk Café (New York City), the Sanctuary Concerts (Berkeley Heights, N.J.); the Long Island Children's Museum (Garden City, N.Y.) (photos and text about Stephen Cohen's Interactive Performances for Children), the Please Touch Museum (Philadelphia); the workshop, Exploring Sculptural Percussion at the Mendocino (CA) Art Center, the workshop, Outside the Box, Alternatives in Marketing and Performance at the International Folk Alliance Conference in Nashville in 2003; live radio performances and interviews on Cross Tracks (Worcester, Ma.), Acoustic Eclectic (WDIY, Bethlehem, Pa.), Contours (WNTI, New Jersey), Sonarchy Radio (Seattle), Art Focus (KBOO, Portland); and countless concerts, performances, workshops, and residencies in his home state of Oregon including the Stephen and the Talk Talk Band concert he produced at the Old Church in Portland in 2004, the Rain Songs concert he produced in the rainy season of 2003 (where Stephen and several Portland bands and artists performed songs about rain at the Community Music Center in Portland), and in past years Art in the Arboretum and Art in the Pearl. He was featured in a story on Oregon Public Broadcasting's Art Beat show in 2002 about his residency at Wilsonville High School, where he worked with a special education class and several music and art students to produce a CD, Junk Jam and a performance at the Wilsonville Festival of Arts. One of the songs created was You Need to Get to Know Me.

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