Cory Chisel

Long regarded as a songwriter’s songwriter, Cory Chisel has spent the last two decades quietly shaping the landscape of Americana music. Over the course of seven acclaimed releases, Chisel has toured internationally with Norah Jones, performed on Late Show with David Letterman, Conan, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and at the Library of Congress alongside Rosanne Cash. In 2016, Chisel received a Grammy nomination for Best American Roots Song for co-writing “The Traveling Kind” with Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris. He also co-wrote songs featured on William Bell’s Grammy-winning Americana album This Is Where I Live. Beyond his own recordings and performances, Chisel co-founded Wisconsin’s Mile of Music festival, taught American Roots composition at Lawrence University, composed music for film, and cultivated a creative sanctuary in a converted Franciscan Capuchin monastery known as The Refuge, a beloved retreat that became central to the lives of countless artists. Over the years, critics have described Chisel’s work as spiritually restless, emotionally unguarded, and deeply human, carried by a voice that can shift effortlessly from weathered vulnerability to full-bodied soul. Rosanne Cash once referred to him as “one of the great blue-eyed soul voices in the world right now,” while others have compared the emotional gravity of his songwriting to artists like Tom Waits, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and The Band.