Debut solo single set for June 23rd
BMG/BBR Music Group announces the signing of recording artist Naomi Cooke Johnson. Former lead vocalist of Runaway June who co-wrote many of the trio’s acclaimed hits, including the RIAA Gold-Certified top five smash “Buy My Own Drinks,” makes her solo debut in the country music scene. With powerhouse vocals, a fiery attitude, and an irresistibly upbeat tempo, “Girls of Summer,” is fans’ first taste of blazing new music from Cooke Johnson who has truly come into her own as a solo artist.
“I could not be more excited to be back with BMG/BBR Music Group,” says Cooke Johnson. “The teams in Nashville and around the world are unparalleled. They have fully embraced my vision, identity and the music I am creating…this time as Naomi Cooke Johnson.”
Raised in rural Virginia, Cooke Johnson was given her first guitar at age seven and quickly found that her inherent talent gave perfect accompaniment to her powerful singing voice that cut through the noise of a traveling family with 11 children. At 15, she helped support her family by waiting tables in a Florida restaurant until the seas of Alaska came calling and she found herself working as a deckhand on a salmon fishing boat. Here, she was able to save up enough cash to chase her dreams to Nashville where she began performing late night gigs at the legendary Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge as a staff musician playing to the lower Broadway honky-tonk crowd. Leaning on influences Bonnie Raitt and Shania Twain, Cooke Johnson began crafting songs about her life’s struggles and determination to overcome them.
“Girls of Summer” is a bombastic celebration of carefree fun with a chosen family of friends and the first taste of new music from the solo artist. Soon to follow are songs chronicling her childhood years of homeschooling and living on a renovated school bus to her current life as a working mom with a brand new baby.
Naomi has joined the roster of Nashville artist management team Fusion Music/Red Light Management, signed a global publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music and is represented by attorney Jess Rosen with Greenberg Traurig.
