Nate Cooper is a talented fingerstyle guitarist and singer-songwriter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
He combines elements of americana, jazz, folk and classical music into original, witty and thought-provoking
songs and instrumentals. Nate has been compared to diverse aritsts ranging from Nick Drake and Randy Newman
to Paul Simon and the Waifs (Nate finds that last comparison a bit of a head scratcher, but respects everyone's opinion).

Bio

Nate Cooper is a talented fingerstyle guitarist and singer-songwriter based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He blends elemements of americana, jazz, folk and classical music into original, entertaining songs and instrumentals that are at once toe-tappingly infectious, thought-provokingly deep, and witty. Nate's style and voice have been compared to diverse artists ranging from Nick Drake to Randy Newman to the Waifs (Nate has trouble seeing the last comparison, but everyone is entitled to an opinion).

Nate Cooper came to the guitar later than usual - at the relatively ripe age of 25. He'd studied piano for many years as a child, but it never captured his full attention and he drifted away from music entirely for over 10 years. During that period, Nate slipped and fell into law school (it happens). It was during the summer before his final year in school that Nate bought his first guitar and began learning to play. Soon after, he fell in love with the instrument and with fingerstyle playing. Music slowly but steadily became the focus of Nate's life. He worked for 11 months, 15 days and 8 hours as a corporate attorney in order to pay down some debt, all the while studying music on his own and with a first teacher. Nate carried his guitar to work each day, practiced at any opportunity, and was one of few attorneys who was planning his exit from law before he ever started working as a lawyer.

Not long after Nate announced his resignation from his law firm, he struck up a conversation with another guitar player during the commute to work on BART (the Bay Area's subway system). Nate can't for the life of him remember this fellow's name, but he was a big guy - sort of bear-like and into Celtic music. The guy was also a software developer, if memory serves, and Nate would like to thank this mysterious, large guitarist, whoever and wherever he may be (you'll see why in a moment). Nate asked him for some names of possible players to study with and the names Peppino D'Agostino and Duck Baker came up among others. Not more than a couple of days later, an employee at Nate's law firm told him that her husband had studied with a great guitarist named . . . Peppino D'Agostino. She loaned Nate Peppino's "Venus over Venice" cd, and Nate knew immediately that he had to stalk Peppino and beg for lessons. The two connected and Peppino was kind enough to take Nate on as a student.

The two worked together for a time and then Peppino introduced Nate to . . . Duck Baker (the world of fingerstyle guitar is quite small). Nate studied with both of them for several years and drove himself to absorb as much as possible. Eventually, Nate began studying with other players - great San Francisco jazz player Jeff Massanari and young classical guitarist/composer phenom Gyan Riley. While these 4 guitarist inspired and helped Nate learn to play and compose music, artists such as Nick Drake and Greg Brown inspired Nate to write songs.

Nate's debut cd, Stories Between the Strings, represents the culmination of 7 1/2 years of work. While Nate wrote many unrecorded songs after picking up the guitar, the collection on this album consists of recently written songs and instrumentals that reflect and represent much of Nate's personality and style.