![\"cookingStorm\"](\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/cookingStorm.jpg\")
<\/a>who says that her own life resembles the lyrics of a country song. Cook\u2019s parents played in country bands and her father served time for selling moonshine. \u201cMusic became part of what I knew,\u201d said the singer.<\/p>\nCook earned dual degrees from the University in accounting and computer information systems and as a student, she could be found working in the College of Business Administration computer lab, as a tutor for the athletic department and singing onstage at Statesboro nightspot Blind Willie\u2019s. \u201cLike many Georgia Southern grads, I got a viable education and had a really good time. I was able to participate in quarter pitcher night and keep my GPA up,\u201d she said humorously. \u201cI credit GSU with challenging me to balance fun and work. When I chose to make this my career, I had to take that and apply a business sense to it if it was going to work and I was going to make my student loan payments,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After graduation, Cook was traveling home to Florida one weekend when she received her first recording contract. Because she didn\u2019t travel with a laptop, Cook stopped at an Ace Hardware store to pick up her contract via the store\u2019s fax machine and the rest is history.<\/p>\n
Since that time, Cook has performed more than 300 times at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and released five albums to rave reviews. Her latest, \u201cWelder,\u201d was produced by Don Was with backup vocals from Dwight Yoakam, Rodney Crowell and Buddy Miller.<\/p>\n
In 2007, she was tapped to host the popular Sirius XM radio show \u201cElizabeth Cook\u2019s Apron Strings,\u201d on the Outlaw Country channel, which features interviews with country music legends.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy memorable times have been getting to interview Connie Smith and Marty Stuart, Wanda Jackson, getting to be around Willie Nelson, Shooter Jennings and all the Outlaw Country family, and having my mother as a guest on the show the Mothers Day before she passed. Thanks to the satellite radio technology, I\u2019ve also done my show under some pretty wild circumstances . . . from Japan, the UK and rolling down the Pacific Coast Highway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Last fall, Cook charmed TV host David Letterman with her witty, honest portrayal of her Southern upbringing on his show, and she has since landed several TV and film roles. \u201cThese opportunities have kinda fallen from the sky,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
And as for the future? \u201cI am thinking on my next record and touring like mad.\u201d<\/p>\n