I had a chance to chat with John Coppess about his music, his father, and ways to cope with physical impairment at a young age.
Smile Politely: Who are you, Mr. Coppess?
John Coppess: I am John Coppess and I often bill myself as The Limping Cowboy. Yes, the limp is real, but not from bulls or broncs! I was born with arthrogryposis, a nonprogressive condition which affect joints. I had severely clubbed feet and no hip joints. Doctors started when I was five days old to correct my feet with a few operations and the wearing of casts (until I was six). They used a bar, attached to shoes or casts, to hold my feet wide apart so my femurs would settle into a fixed place on my pelvis. I learned to walk when I was almost four years old.
Part of the way I handled the casts was to pretend they were cowboy boots. Growing up in the 50s and 60s, I watched all the westerns on TV. My dad played the guitar and sang, and we sang a lot of songs together: When it’s Round Up Time in Texas, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie, Cool Water, and many more. I have always loved cowboys and have written several cowboy songs myself.
I never sang and played my guitar in public till 2009 (when I was 54 years old). I played every week at the Urbana Farmer’s Market where I had a booth for three years selling hand made leather items I produced. I still perform solo, but often now I sing with my girlfriend, Suzanne Warner.
SP: So your father had a big impact on your music, I take it…
Coppess: Yes, my dad impacted my entire life. He had survived 35 missions as a tailgunner in a B-17 Flying Fortress Bomber in WW II. After the war, he and my mom farmed. They were sharecroppers doing cash rent with landowners. We were poor. After supper we sat around the table and sang with [my dad] while he played. Then, when I was 8, he was killed in a farming accident. I missed singing with him so much. When I was 15 I taught myself to play so that I could sing those songs we had done together. One of the best songs I have written is a tribute to him called Daddy Dreamed.
SP: What else inspires you?
Coppess: Stories and legends inspire me. I love Marty Robbins story songs about cowboys like El Paso, Big Iron, and The Cowboy in the Continental Suit. I think very much about the ways people handle what life dishes up to them. More than anything I want to be a good man; really help my friends and even those I encounter briefly. The songs I write often come to me as a mental image or a single line. Then I build the song around that central focus. So, in the end, I hope people come away from hearing one of my songs with something to think about.
SP: Are your songs a narrative or more like loosely defined metaphors and themes?
Coppess: Definitely narrative ballads. Beginning, middle, and end.
SP: Where do you like to play?
Coppess: I love the Summer Friday Night Live shows sponsored by 40 North. Also I love playing The Clark Bar, The Rose Bowl, Black Rock Pizza, The Iron Post, The Folk and Roots Festival, and Indi Go Gallery to name a few.
SP: What makes them so special to you?
Coppess: Friday Night Live is a public street performance, so you get all kinds of reactions from people walking by stopping to listen. The Clark Bar is a close somfortable atmosphere, The Rose Bowl is country, Black Rock has a great stage, The Iron Post has such a wide diversity of music, Indi Go has great sound resonating off the walls, and The Folk and Roots Festival has people who really come out because they love music!
SP: How would you describe your style and sound?
Coppess: My sound is definitely country. It’s a blend of the performers I listened to while growing up: Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash. While almost everyone knows Cash, I wish more were aware of Arnold and Reeves. They both had such rich baritone voices and were such smooth singers.
SP: If you can only play with one of them, who would you pick?
Coppess: I would say Jim Reeves. He recorded the ultimate cowboy song, The Blizzard.
You can catch John at Indi Go Artist Co-op tonight at 7 p.m.