Brent Cobb’s ‘Love-Hate Relationship’ With Touring Inspired His Music Video Series

Brent Cobb's new duet with Jade Bird, "Feet Off the Ground," may be the first taste of a new musical chapter for the singer -- but he says fans shouldn't expect a full album quite yet.

"I don't know about a new album. I just wanted to put out another song, and I love Jade. I'm kind of between record cycles right now," the singer explained to The Boot during AmericanaFest 2019, adding that he intends to begin focusing on new music at the end of the year: "I'm gonna go in in December and start recording," Cobb shares. "I have an album mostly written, and I'm gonna try to cut out some time."

Cobb's had good reason to stay out of the studio in 2019. Not only did his touring schedule keep him busy, but he welcomed a new addition to his family. "I had a son this year. Perhaps we would have gotten into the studio at that time, but my wife was having a baby, so we thought maybe I should be home for that," he jokes.

Fans of 2018's Providence Canyon may know Cobb best as the free-wheeling road dog behind tracks such as "Ain't a Road Too Long" and "King of Alabama," but the singer says he actually has a complicated relationship with tour life. "I am not a fan of the road, and I never have been," Cobb admits.

"It's not that I don't enjoy and appreciate people showing up and knowing my songs. I love that I can have a career doing it," he continues. "But I've always only ever wanted to be a songwriter. [Writing songs and touring], they've just always worked hand in hand for me."

Simply put, Cobb gets homesick. "I love taking my daughter to school in the morning. I like grilling in the evenings. I like being home. I've always been a homebody," he says. "It's such a love-hate relationship [that I have with touring]. I'm happy that I have the opportunity, but sometimes I do miss being the dude that's just writing the songs."

In his Come Home Soon music video triptych, Cobb draws inspiration from that homesickness, with visuals showcasing his family life and his South Georgia hometown. The singer accompanies each video with a live acoustic rendition of a song from Providence Canyon -- "Come Home Soon," "Country Bound" and "Providence Canyon," respectively -- along with cameos from his daughter and other friends and neighbors in his native Ellaville, Ga.

It isn't the first time Cobb has assembled a series of connected music videos to further highlight his songs. In 2018, he shared his School House Rock-inspired Ain't a Road Too Long series, an animated triad of videos that also accompanied songs off Providence Canyon. One track, "Come Home Soon," appears in both series, with a separate visual treatment in each. Even so, the whimsical and party-centric Ain't a Road Too Long videos stand in stark contrast to the subsequent Come Home Soon series, both visually and in terms of subject matter.

"[The Ain't a Road Too Long series] is quite the opposite of this series," Cobb relates. "When we did Ain't a Road, I was way busy touring, and I was writing a lot of songs about wanting to be back home. We were still living in Nashville, but we were in between moving back to Georgia, and there was just no time for anything.

"And so with Ain't a Road, I wanted to showcase, like, 'This is what's happening that's causing me to miss where I'm from.' This year, with the Come Home Soon series, I wanted to showcase why this is the place that I miss," he adds. "Like, 'Here's life on the road, and here's home.' [The two series] are definitely connected."