While Barry Cook and Cathy Whitworth, Chanute, are entertaining guests at the Iola Elks Lodge and at REB’s Place, Humboldt, they have a side project that is taking them to Nashville, Tenn.
They met while performing with a local band, Cook said. Whitworth sang and Cook played the guitar. Both of them had aspirations of making music a full-time career. She had already written some of her own music, and in 2007 had auditioned for, the now canceled, “Nashville Star,” a country music version of “American Idol.”
“You had to have an original song and it had to be copy written,” Whitworth said, “It was quite an experience.”
Since then the two have banned together and encouraged each other to step outside of their comfort zones. He taught her how to play rhythm guitar and she motivated him to sing. Together they have formed the musical duo,“Side Project.” What makes the duo unique, according to Cook, is that they not only perform live music, but also DJ popular tunes and host karaoke. This way they can branch out more and earn the funds to do what they really dream of, Whitworth said. Their goal is to record an album in Nashville.
In December 2016 they took a leap of faith and, at their own expense, recorded a single that Whitworth had written.
“We wanted the Nashville sound,” Cook said. “We are country. We play rock, we play everything, we play blues, we play a lot of stuff, but when you get right to it, we are country.”
After much research and contemplation they chose to record their first song, “Living a Country Song,” with Beaird Music Group.
“When we came from little old Chanute, Kansas, to the big Nashville, it was a little intimidating, but they made us feel like we were somebody, too,” Whitworth said.
One of the perks of recording with Beaird, according to Cook, is that the duo met with a publisher from Sony Music Entertainment. Although the company did not jump at the chance to buy their song, Whitworth said it was an amazing experience.
“We were proud of ourselves for doing that,” she said.“The first thing we did when we got the CD (was) drive down Music Row in Nashville with it jamming in the truck.”
In fact, they played the song about 73 times in a row, Cook said as he laughed.
“That was surreal, we felt like we were in a movie,” he said. “It was really cool.”
Because “Living a Country Song” is based on the story of how the two met, they consider it to be like one of their own children. This is why, according to Cook, when the publishers suggested they make changes to the song, they opted to keep it as they had written it. Whitworth said she is encouraged by the local response to the song.
“Every time we play it anywhere they are starting to know it and they sing along and two-step to it and line dance,” she said. “It gives you a good feeling when that happens. We don’t want to change it.”
Instead, she said, they are working hard to earn enough money to record a CD that will include “Thank you Dad,” a song she wrote about her father, Jerry Whitworth, who passed away in 2014. It is a song, she said, she had in her head and Cook brought to life. Cook said he believes it is commercially viable.
While the two are working on plans to head to Nashville again, they both manage businesses in Chanute. He owns “KS Rug Scrubbers” and she runs her family’s storage complex, “WW Storage.” They have gigs booked through September, according to Whitworth, including every second and fourth Friday at REB’s, and they will be at The Gathering, March 18. They are opening for comedian Spencer James, April 28, at the Elks Club, Iola, and will be in Grove, Okla., the first Friday of every month, June through September.
