Scott Cook is returning to 5th Avenue Cup & Saucer two years after his first appearance.
"I last played Yorkton in May of 2010. I spent that summer touring around western Canada, and the fall in the midwest and Ontario, before returning to Edmonton to start recording the new album," he said. "In the new year (2011) I toured around BC, down the West coast of the States, to Texas and Tennessee, and back home through the midwestern States.
"In the spring I released the new album with a band tour of Alberta and BC, then carried on solo out west for the rest of the summer festival season.
In 2012 Cook was in Taiwan with pen in-hand.
"I was in Taiwan for three months, which even included a month off the road and off the drink, holed up in a beach house on the northeast coast, eating well, practicing yoga and writing a lot, all of which was really good for me."
Cook is currently promoting what is his third solo offering.
"My newest CD, 'Moonlit Rambles', is my third solo album," he said. "It continues in a similar vein to the last two, although it takes on some more serious subjects, including somewhat political material, and a tribute I wrote to my late Grandpa. The tunes are all true stories, like before, although of course I'd like to think I've gotten better at telling them through the years."
Cook said he is very satisfied with the new disk.
"I worked with a great engineer in Edmonton, Brad Smith, who also mixed my 2009 record 'This One's on the House'," he said. "I recorded my parts and various friends' overdubs all over the place, and even had parts emailed in from as far away as Michigan and Taiwan.
"All of the musicians who contributed parts are important people in my life, and there's a lot of love cooked into it."
In terms of music Cook, born in West Virginia but growing up on the Canadian Prairies, said he has listened to, and been influenced through the years by many, although his current material draws more heavily on some performers than others.
"There are really too many influences to mention, but I will say that for the kind of music I do now, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and Greg Brown have been big lights, in addition to friends of mine like Corin Raymond, Jonathan Byrd, Geoff Berner and Carolyn Mark," he said.
Of course varied influences are expected for someone with a long passion for music.
"I've been playing around with music all my life, but I really got turned onto it when my folks bought me an electric guitar at fifteen," he said. "My friends and I started a punk band and we were gigging in some really dodgy dives around town all through high school. Some girls even started to sing along, and I had an inkling I'd like to do that all my life.
"My tastes broadened a lot more as time went on, and I dabbled in low-fi, hip hop, electronic music, acid jazz, folk and reggae. In Taiwan (six years teaching Kindergarten) I played in a couple bands, gradually got a press kit together, and worked my way into doing music back here in Canada."
