Ed Cosens is in the thick of rehearsals for How Could I Forget?, a new musical written by his long-time friend Joe Carnall of the Sheffield band Milburn when he stops to speak to The Yorkshire Post. “It’s all a bit hectic,” he says, “but it’s all good.”
Amidst everything, Cosens, who was the guitarist and musical director of another Steel City group, Reverend and the Makers, before branching out on his own as a singer-songwriter, is releasing a new EP, Songs With Friends, featuring five cover versions of classic songs by Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, The Everly Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Recorded in collaboration with James Walsh of Starsailor, Grammy Award-winner Beth Nielsen Chapman, Young Blues Guitarist of the Year Toby Lee, London-based Americana singer Daisy Chute and South Yorkshire Jean Rohe, it is, he says, a project he’s had in mind for a couple of years.
“Basically, I’ve spent the last two or three years doing a lot of co-writing and songwriting camps and I’ve just met loads of amazing people, other songwriters, other artists, other musicians, and the idea of doing an EP of covers is something I’ve wanted to do for a while and I thought, actually what better way to do it, to make it sound better, is why not do it with these people I’ve met as I’ve been going out all over the world?” he explains.
The experience of duetting with Nielsen Chapman on the Neil Young song Harvest Moon was “incredible”, he says. “When I was out in Nashville we actually recorded the vocals in the studio together, which was phenomenal.”
He met Toby Lee at a writing camp in Texas. “He’s actually in Jools Holland’s band now, he’s that good and he’s only 20,” Cosens adds.
A second EP is likely to follow – “The cogs are whirring thinking who I can get on that one,” he says – before he releases his third solo album next year.
After spending years in bands in Sheffield, stepping out on his own in 2021 with his first solo album Fortunes Favour had been a big step. In 2024 he followed it up with Somewhere Between Dark and Light. “It’s taken me those two albums into this album now that I’m doing to really find my voice, how I deliver things, how I do things,” he reflects.
“It took a while but the idea was always there, as a songwriter I think it’s inevitable that you will branch out and do your own thing. You can’t just sit at the back and let life pass you by, you just have to get involved with it, and that’s what I did.”
How Could I Forget?, which he’s currently involved in as musical director, has been a deeply personal project for his friend Carnall and focuses on Billy, a young man navigating life as his grandfather Jack faces dementia. “It’s semi-autobiographical,” Cosens says. “Joe’s incredibly talented as a songwriter and musician in his own right, but because he’s lived that experience with his own grandad, it has come from real life.
“All the little nuances, the dialogue and the memories and the way it’s all put together is very human and very real.”
Following a recent six-date run at theatres in Sheffield, Hull Leeds and Barnsley, they will present a special singing performance and workshop in partnership with the University of Sheffield at the Festival of the Mind in Sheffield on November 8.
Songs With Friends is out on streaming platforms now. Ed Cosens plays at The Greysteons, Sheffield on October 26 and Forty Five Vinyl Cafe, York on November 21 and December 3-5. https://www.facebook.com/edcosensmusic/?locale=en_GB