Mark McKinney & the Cosmic Cowboys

"Chapter One" 1997-2001Combine friendship, good times, strong songwriting and some good ol' southern influenced rootsy music that really rocks, and you just might be talking about the Cosmic Cowboys. The band consists of four close friends/relatives that basically grew up playing music together. Founding members, Rob Dennis - Drums/Percussion, Mark McKinney - Vocals/Guitars/Harmonica, Eric McKinney - Guitars/Lap Slide/Background Vocals, got their start in the music business playing cover tunes throughout their junior high and high school days during the late '80's under the band name Caution. In late '97, Eric, Mark and Rob decided to begin a new chapter and re-grouped to form the Cosmic Cowboys. At that time, they also added Ryan Coggin (Eric & Mark's cousin) as the Cowboys bassist. With the addition of Ryan, the group began going through a collection of over a hundred songs that Mark and Eric had written, and began rehearsing for an album they decided to cut. During the process of recording/producing the album, the band started submitting material and playing showcases for various record labels. They ended up signing with Virgin Records-Nashville. Scott Hendricks the president of the label liked what he heard and worked towards further developing the group. As the Virgin negotiations progressed, the band felt pressured to deliver perfect "Nashville" radio singles. Some differences of opinions began to surface between the songs the Cosmic Cowboys were really digging, and the songs that the label executives wanted to release. Eventually, the label ended up closing down the Nashville division and therefore negotiations ceased. However, during the process of writing and producing material, the band has acquired and recorded over two albums worth of great material.Chapter TwoMark McKinney reforms the Cosmic Cowboys to back him to tour on his solo project "Get It On".