Florida native, Amanda Cook has become one of the top female band leaders on the bluegrass scene today. The Amanda Cook Band has reached the 10 year mark under her leadership, and just recently released their fifth album, Restless Soul. Sparked by her dad’s influence, and the desire to lead a band of her own, Amanda now has an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry to her credit, and is the chief of operations at Mountain Fever Records, the label who first signed her back in 2017.
Dad Got It Rollin’
Amanda’s dad played banjo her entire childhood, and she spent the majority of her youth traveling to festivals with him, not as a player, but mostly just as a spectator. He often played in several bands and participated in band competitions while she was growing up. “When I got to my mid 20s, I started a group with my dad,” she recalled. That’s really where the Bluegrass bug took hold, and I really got my feet dipped into being in a bluegrass band.”
Amanda played in a band all through school, playing flute, “… you know, doing the marching band, and all that,” she laughed. “So really, I guess that’s where it (music) took hold. But it was in the band with my dad that I picked up the mandolin as my first bluegrass instrument.”
More To The Story
Amanda and her husband began their relationship as high school sweethearts, and got married a year out of high school. They started a family very young, which, as she puts it, “has now proven to be a wonderful decision.”
“My children are both grown, and we’re all in a whole different season of life now,” she observed. “I was working at a local credit union there, working a regular, full time job when I also started working in the band with my dad. It was just a weekend thing, you know, here and there. We played mostly regionally. But that’s where I really got the fire to jump into my own sound. I played very traditional bluegrass with my dad. He’s aFlat and Scruggs man through and through. And as the time went on, I would try to introduce songs here and there that were a little more progressive, a little more on the edge, and it just didn’t really suit them. It’s not that dad wasn’t supportive; but it just didn’t suit that band, you know?”
In 2013 Amanda decided it was time to do her own thing. “I wanted to make a record, and I wanted to start carving out my own sound. So I stayed in the band for another year, until that album came out. In late 2013, I started hiring my band, and then we started booking out as Amanda Cook and Kennesaw Ridge. We just mostly played locally, with some regional things here and there.”
In 2017 Amanda signed with Mountain Fever Records. “That’s where the trajectory really took off,” she said. “We did that first project called, Deep Water. And really, the rest is history. We’ve recorded five records now with Mountain Fever, and every record has had and seen more and more success.”
I asked Amanda if she ever envisioned a time where she would have the kind of success she has been able to attain. “When I look back at 2013 when we got the band together, I had five or six festivals in my mind that I really wanted to play. And I thought, ‘I just want to be able to play festivals, and I want to play at IBMA one day. That’s what I had in my mind. When I cut that first record, I thought, ‘now I want to go to IBMA and actually play on a stage.’ Never did I imagine that we’d live in Virginia (working for the record label). I certainly never thought that we would have stepped onto the Grand Ole Opry stage. Never, ever, did I think any of that would happen.”
Grand Ole Opry
“I still don’t really believe that it happened,” she reminisced. “I look at my phone, I go across those pictures, I’ll see the videos; And I think, ‘did that really take place?’ Because it was so dream like, you know.”
On July 7th, 2024, The Amanda Cook Band debuted on the Grand Ole Opry. “Darren and Brooke Aldridge reached out to me, and they were so kind. They said, ‘whatever you do, take in every moment of that night.’ I’ve had people compare it to wedding day, because, you know, your wedding day just goes by so fast. You try to take those mental pictures of the day. That’s exactly what it’s like at the Opry, because your adrenaline is so high, and the night goes by so fast. Before you know it, you’re on that stage, and there’s no turning back.”
“None of my band would admit to me that they were nervous because they thought if they told me then that they were nervous, that my nerves would have tripled; (and they probably would have), But they all tried to play it so cool. None of them wanted to admit that they were nervous. And then, after the fact, we all came together, and everybody was like, ‘I was scared to death,’ you know. It’s so emotional to make that as a goal for the band, and stand on that stage where all of our heroes have stood and the people that have gone on before us; it’s overwhelmingly nerve wracking, in a good way.”
Roll At The Label
Shortly after Amanda signed with Mountain Fever and recorded her second album, she and her husband relocated from her native Florida, to Virginia, to take a position as Sound Engineer at the label. “We (Mark Hodges, label owner, and Amanda) had a discussion about my interest, in December of 2018, and by May of 2019, we had moved,” she recalled. “We sold our house in Florida on impulse. Lots of prayers went up before we made the final decision, for sure. But it was pretty quick, and we got here, and I started working in the studio.”
After Mark suffered some health issues in 2022, Amanda took over the roll of chief of operations at the label. “I feel like this is more suited to the type A personality brain that I have, and being in more of the production side and organizational side, and just keeping everything moving forward; I really love it.”
Catch the Amanda Cook Band at a bluegrass festival near you.