When lead singer, Sherry Cothran, left her hit rock band, The Evinrudes (Mercury, NY) to go to seminary at Vanderbilt and work with the homeless in urban Nashville, she hoped the they would reunite one day. Even though Cothran charted, wrote songs for movie and t.v., gained accolades as a solo artist while immersing herself in her new role as clergy, she still felt there was something missing – her band mates. Hope Revival is the first single from a forthcoming album co-written and co-produced by former partner, Brian Reed, and backed by the band’s original members; it showcases a delightful return to her “distinctive, hickory smoke vocals” (The Star, UK, David Dunn). Staying true to her “hypnotic, dazzling” (Robert K. Oerman, Music Row Magazine) sound, Hope Revival is full of edgy soul and still “mixes yearning emotions with sassy confidence.” (Bucketfull of Brains, London, Terry Mermon) Cothran sings “hope is the thing that grows its wings in the darkness.” Hope Revival is a song we all need to hear now. The forthcoming album, Ain’t Gonna Lay, is due out on her indie label, Sunland, March, ’23.

More of Sherry’s story…

Sherry’s voice has been described from various spheres as “deeply poetic with arresting honesty, edgy, fresh and inviting.”She uses her voice to ply her trade, crafting songs, books and sermons. Before receiving a Master’s of Divinity from Vanderbilt University, she was the lead singer of a popular rock band, The Evinrudes, Mercury Records, NY. The band had success with a number one single on rock radio and she shared stages with many popular bands of the day: Goo Goo Dolls, Spin Doctors, Bare Naked Ladies and many others. She has acted in a film, written songs for t.v, movie and radio and these days, she is a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter who is also an ordained, United Methodist minister. Sherry has served as a senior pastor at United Methodist churches in Nashville and Chattanooga for the past decade. 

In 2018,Sherry released her first book, “Tending Angels: Stories From the Frontlines of Heaven and Earth,” a collection of essays from a decade of serving as senior pastor in an urban church in Nashville in which she encountered Music City’s hidden population of homeless, refugees, immigrants and the poor. She also released a companion single, “Tending Angels” and worked with indie filmmaker, Trace Facelli on a music video that seeks to show the real reasons people spiral into homelessness, shattering the common stereotype. The music video has premiered at film festivals nationally and internationally. Previously, Sherry released a series of songs based on the stories of hidden women of the Old Testament, the prophets, warriors, healers and heroes. Excavating their stories that have often been lost in translation and turning them into modern alternative songs.

The Louisville Institute awarded her two grants and have underwritten her last two projects. Her project, “Kiss the Ground” explores wisdom texts from all over the world in 10 original songs, including the poetry of Hafiz and Rumi. Sherry was also the artist in residence at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2015, co-teaching a course with biblical scholar, Johanna van Wijk-Bos on the lesser known stories of biblical women. 

Sherry’s story has been featured in USA Today, and other publications, her sermons have been published in the homiletic journal, “Good Preacher,” her blogs have been published in online magazines including Alive Now, Abingdon Women, Ministry Matters and her own blog is well read. Sherry has been a keynote speaker at many conferences and performed at various festivals including Festival of Homiletics, Nashville, and Wild Goose Festival.

Sherry’s performances are not to be missed, she combines songs and stories rooted in Bible, ancient wisdom traditions, theology and myth. Through the common pathway of wisdom, story and song, Sherry seeks to break down barriers between people of difference, put a sacred face on homelessness, and create pathways of peace we can all walk on together, inviting everyone to imagine the walls that divide us turning into bridges that unite us. Check out stories on Sherry in USA Today, UMC.org, interpretermagazine.org.

In 2020, Sherry founded a nonprofit based in Chattanooga, TN, Beloved Woman, helping financially disadvantaged women start small businesses and find a pathway to a living wage. She is appointed to this outreach program based at Second Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga. She also released a new book in the summer fo 2021, Wild and Holy Women of the Bible: Prophets, Warriors, Harlots and Healers, funded through research by the Louisville Institute for Pastoral Study. The book also includes 10 original songs and is a compilation of Sherry’s extensive work and research on these lesser known stories of women hidden in the Bible’s uncharted regions. 

Check out more of Sherry’s story here: