Cōque Ross

Cōque Ross is an unusual name for an unusual musician with a really unusual path to where he is right now. Born in Kensington, Maryland he moved to Miami, Florida when he was 10 years old. Moving to a new town meant starting over, making all new friends and plenty of time by himself. He set about learning how to play the guitar and shortly thereafter started writing his own songs when he was just 12 years old. By 13 he was recording on a 4-track recorder and learning the techniques of how to write better and better songs.

The youngest of four children, Cōque inherited a host of early musical tastes from his older sisters and through a constant exploration of their records he fell in love with a really wide array of powerfully moving music. A steady diet of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Elton John, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, The Bee Gees, Chic and Earth, Wind and Fire were early influences that set him on a path to constantly explore more sonic territory. Soon he would develop a deep need to listen to more and more music and hard rock bands like Black Sabbath, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Van Halen, Styx, Foreigner and Fishbone would enter his life in a big way. But it didn’t stop there. British bands like David Bowie, ELO, The Police, The Smiths, Billy Idol, Duran Duran, Sting and Level 42 would leave their mark on him and become an intrinsic part of his writing throughout the years to come. This brilliant mix of musical influences forged a potent brew evident in his writing, singing and guitar playing.

Cōque sang and played guitar in several bands when he was in high school and by the time he was in college was writing, recording and releasing music with an all original funk rock band called Big Brother. He played loads of gigs during that time, including at many of the universities in Florida and, while studying sound engineering, spent an enormous amount of time in several Miami recording studios learning how to record and produce his own music.

After his graduate studies, Cōque took a job as an English teacher at a college prep school where he taught literature, poetry and writing; all skills that would later help him become a better songwriter. During that time, he had the opportunity to specialize in teaching Arthurian Literature (all about King Arthur) and developed a successful one-of-a-kind Medieval Summer Camp for kids, and a sword fighting school for kids and adults that ran for a decade. After years of teaching literature and all things Medieval, he went back to his first love and, in 2010 moved to the Treasure Coast of Florida and became a full-time gigging musician.

Over the next 12 years, Cōque played well over 2000 gigs of all types ranging from solo, duo, trio and quartet shows and even running a 10-piece corporate event band. Through it all, he continued to write original music and follow his passion and in late 2023 he moved to Fresno, California to set upon working solely as a singer-songwriter.

After months of recording, Cōque released the first of his original compositions, a song called “You Fo Me” (essentially, a love-letter to the ocean and the endless joys of the water) in July of 2023 to much success, and his latest release, "Let Us Go" came out in December of 2023 to even greater excitement.

"Let Us Go" is a romantic song about embarking on the glorious journey of love with that special person and moving boldly, hand-in-hand into the future. It encompasses the passion and excitement of taking life by storm, without hesitation. And, through it all, the power of two people in love, fearlessly taking the first steps of a long life together, can overcome any obstacle.

Both his recent and upcoming releases (scheduled for 2024) explore the many themes learned in a lifetime of incredible experiences, travel, lots of books and the consumption of myriad styles of musical influences. Together, they forge the rich tapestry of his music that comes across as timeless, familiar and brand new all at the same time. Having lived a life fraught with many personal challenges and punctuated by loss and grief, Cōque’s music often touches on universal themes concerning the better parts of relationships, affirmations of joy, the power of love and reflections of living life to the fullest. Fans of his work find his music speaks to them in ways that are poignant, touching, relatable and truly memorable.