"Down here, there's a lot going on and there's nothing going on at the same time," he says. "You've got all these different cultures in the south, and everything is mixed in together. Otis Redding and Little Richard were from the same town in Georgia. So were the Allman Brothers. James Brown and Ray Charles grew up right down the road. All these sounds reflect the South itself, and that music has influenced the whole world. It's definitely influenced mine."
Filled with country-soul songwriting, laid back grooves, and classic storytelling, Southern Star distills the best parts of southern culture into 10 of the strongest songs in Cobb's catalog. He began writing the material after leaving Nashville — where he spent a decade releasing solo records like 2016's Shine On Rainy Day (which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album) while penning hit songs for Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, and dozens of others — and returning with his family to Georgia. It was a time of change. Not long after celebrating the arrival of his second child, Cobb found himself mourning the death of his longtime friend, Jason "Rowdy" Cope of The Steel Woods.