2026 August - Emerald Coast Woman Magazine - Magazine - Page 36
oanna Co琀琀en did everything right. Trained at
Juilliard on scholarship, she came to Nashville
with a voice built for the spotlight and a deal with
Warner Bros. Records to prove it. She recorded
twenty-one songs for a debut album. She released
a single, “The Prize,” that climbed to number 60
on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. And
then, in December 2007, the label let her go. The
album never saw daylight.
J
For a lot of people, that would have been the end
of the story. For Co琀琀en, it was the quiet middle.
She kept wri琀椀ng. She kept showing up. Years
later, she found herself on stage as Eric Church’s
harmony partner, then his duet partner, the kind
of powerhouse voice fans came to know through
his shows and their dynamic performances
together. But her own sound tells a fuller story.
She calls it Funkabilly, a mix of country twang,
blues rhythm, and funk bassline, carried by the
kind of deep, gospel-soaked belt that comes from
growing up steeped in Southern soul. It never 昀椀t
neatly into one genre, which may be exactly why
it took 琀椀me to 昀椀nd its home.
Through it all, Santa Rosa Beach has stayed
home. Co琀琀en calls it that outright, the place she
circles back to, the place she plans to return to
fully when her touring years wind down. She has
hosted songwri琀椀ng retreats along 30A, performed
at the 30A Songwriters Fes琀椀val, and chose that
36 | Finding Her Sound In The Silence: Joanna Cotten• Emerald Coast Woman
