Stephen Cochran Project
If the name isn't ringing any bells, never fear ... it won't be long before you'll be hearing it all over the place.
Stephen Cochran was born in Eastern Kentucky and grew up in Nashville. Music was his passion all his life, so when he was a student at Western Kentucky University, getting a development deal with Epic didn't surprise anyone who knew him. However, before he could get his career off the ground, 9/11 happened. Cochran put his musical dreams on the back burner to serve his country, as generations before him had done. He joined the U.S. Marines, serving with the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Tours in Iraq and Afghanistan came and went and Sgt. Cochran came home unharmed. However, during what was supposed to be his last combat patrol in the Afghan city of Kandahar, tragedy struck. Stephen was severely wounded and came home missing parts of his fingers and without the use of his legs. Paralyzed from the waist down, he spent his first nine months stateside in a wheelchair. Though medical science said he would never walk again, neither Cochran nor his doctors at the VA Hospital in Nashville were willing to give up. They performed an experimental surgical procedure called Kyphoplasty on his back and it was a success. The months of intense physical therapy, learning to walk again, were brutal, but for Stephen, giving up was never an option.
One he had his legs back, he used them to chase his dream once again ... making music. Cochran put together his band - Mark Erhardt (background vocals/steel/banjo/acoustic and electric guitars/mandolin/road manager), Ryan "Smitty" Byrne (bass/sax/BGVs), Kenney Phillips (drums), Carrigan Shields (keyboards), Solomon Littlefield (lead guitar/BGVs) and Matthew Seay (second guitar/BGVs). The men became collectively knows as the Stephen Cochran Project, or "SCP."
As the band played any show they could get, more people noticed their talent ... people like Larry King, Willie Nelson, John Rich of Big & Rich and Aaron Tippin. In the seven years since the first project came out, the fan base and the opportunities have grown. In 2009, the Veterans Administration named him as a spokesman and he regularly speaks to Marines, veterans and their families about Post Traumatic Stress.
The new album and homecoming are a rebirth of sorts for Cochran. With Sandy Hook being only an hour away from his hometown, he will be returning (with new music) to the place it all started and the new album will be the re-launch of his country music career.
