From Don - “This is a most remarkable project - many years in the making. I first started doing recordings for Marty back in the 90s, to help him with his work as a music publisher - doing song demos etc. But we started doing recordings of Marty singing songs that he wrote but that others had recorded over the years - going all the way back to the late 1950s and early 60s. After a while it became clear that we had something really special. It’s taken a long time to get it into it’s present form - a truly first-class CD and booklet package, presenting Marty Cooper’s songs, that truly form a portrait of America in all its facets - the positive and the problematic, but always the land of the possible.” Marty Cooper is a storyteller of America, truly America's hidden balladeer. He has written number one hits, as well as songs covered by such luminaries as Stevie Wonder, Rod McKuen, Jimmie Rodgers, Sammy Davis, Jr., The Kingston Trio, The Brothers Four, Burl Ives, Bobby Bare, The Irish Rovers, and Jennifer Warnes. In a career extending back to the late 1950s and as an important voice of the 60s folk revival, Marty's worked with such LA studio legends as The Wrecking Crew and Jack Nitzsche. And yet, he remains largely undiscovered by the public at large. This collection consists mainly of Marty doing Marty – singing songs previously covered and made famous by other artists, like Donna Fargo's “You Can't Be a Beacon (If Your Light Don't Shine)”, which debuted at #1 on Billboard's Country Top 100, and “A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Rock 'n Roll”, the ubiquitous theme song of Donny and Marie Osmond, heard here with the original non-sibling lyrics. And there's protest songs censored by “the powers that be” back in the 60's, like “One More Time, Billy Brown” (originally sung by Burl Ives), because the message was deemed too inflammatory. But beyond all that, there is a portrait here painted with love and care of an America that we have largely lost – painted with the hope that perhaps we can find it, or some parts of it, again.
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What folks are sayin':
Fervor Coulee, Roots Music Opinion - “An impressive, sweeping collection of Americana capturing the times, influences, and sounds from Marty Cooper’s sixty-plus years as a recording artist.” https://fervorcoulee.wordpress.com/2025/08/19/marty-cooper-american-portraits-review/
Steve Horowitz, Pop Matters – “He (Marty Cooper) looks at America and sees how much it has changed. He doesn’t judge the present as much as he realizes the value of what used to be. His music stands as testimony.” https://www.popmatters.com/marty-cooper-american-portraits
Michael Doherty's Music Log - “There is still a lot that is truly good about this country, despite the current efforts of fascists to destroy it all, and much of what is good is expressed in the music of this land - its stories, its people, its ideals (yes, those ideal still exist, at least in the hearts of many of its citizens), its dreams and goals. And when we listen to its music, we feel connected to its great tradition, its past. Marty Cooper, on his new album American Portraits, revisits some of his well-known songs, songs that were recorded by other artists, songs that touch on the themes and personality of this country.” https://michaelsmusiclog.blogspot.com/2025/08/marty-cooper-american-portraits-2025-cd.html#google_vignette
Jerome Clark, Rambles.net - “The only album I can compare it to is the late John Stewart's California Bloodlines… “ https://www.rambles.net/~ramblesn/cooper_amportraits25.html
Remo Ricaldone, planetcountry.it - “a figure of fundamental importance” … “a lucid and incisive pen that touched the universal themes of society” … “a journey to an America that is largely no longer there but is still a great source of inspiration” … “strongly inspired.” https://www.planetcountry.it/marty-cooper-american-portraits/
Gallery 1 – Classic Portraits
1. Stephen – A tribute to Stephen Foster, America's first great songwriter, who died alone and destitute, without a song. In some ways this serves as the overture for the collection. (Previously released on EMI (Germany) 1979, remastered)
2. Their Roof Is the Sky – A moving portrait of America's persistent homeless multitudes.
3. The Burlington Zephyr – A tribute to the mid-20th century streamliner that traveled as fast as today's fastest American trains.
4. The Mississippi Blind Boy – A story of a street musician based on an early childhood experience of Marty's.
5. (I'm a) Yo Yo Man – The beautiful innocence of a time when the fabled Yo Yo Man entertained kids in schoolyards across the country.
6. The Ball Player – A portrait of the ghost of Baseball past.
7. The Oklahoma Wrangler – A story of the inside and outside of the “Silver Cowboys” of the classic western movies.
8. A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock and Roll® (with Wendy Newcomer) – This is the original pre-Osmond version of the story – a portrait of a couple very much in love with their music and with each other.
Gallery 2 – A World in Motion
9. In Santa Fe (with Wendy Newcomer) – A song of the endless yearning of Americans for what's beyond the horizon.
10. The Indiana Girl – A portrait of the young girls leaving their midwestern homes, looking for excitement in the exciting places, and what they found. (Previously released on Barnaby Records, 1972, remastered)
11. Cowboys and Daddies – A heartbreaker of a song about couples going their separate ways.
12. You Can't Be a Beacon (If Your Light Don't Shine) – Marty's version of the Donna Fargo #1 hit – a song about being real.
13. Think of the Children as Roses (with Robin James) – A portrait of the evergreen hope that children represent.
14. The Biplane, Evermore – A children's song that Marty wrote for his son, later covered by The Irish Rovers, The Royal Guardsmen, and The Shacklefords, and featured regularly on the Captain Kangaroo TV show.
15. Little Bitty Ball – A portrait of our home, in hopes that we may learn to give it the care it deserves.
Gallery 3 – A 60's Farewell
16. Under Your Wing – A portrait of life's journey, recorded by the legendary Burl Ives.
17. The View From Ward Three – A story of the changing perspectives found along life's pathway. (Previously released on Barnaby Records, 1972, remastered)
18. The Leaves (with Eliza Gilkyson and Rick Cunha) – A meditation on the things that matter.
19. Little Play Soldiers – One of what Marty calls his “failed anti-war songs”, recorded by the Kingston Trio and The Brothers Four at the beginning of the Vietnam war, and yet more of a hit in Germany than in the US.
20. One More Time, Billy Brown – Another anti-war anthem, debuted by Burl Ives on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, only to be quashed by “the powers that be”, rumored to be President Nixon.
21. A Stranger in Your Town – A moving tribute to those who find themselves strangers in this world. This was the final song recorded for this project – dedicated by Marty to all of his fellow artists he worked with long the way.
22. I Wrote a Song – A fitting capstone to this project – a tribute to those who are “singing freedom's song”. (Previously released on Barnaby Records, 1972, remastered)
