Medford native makes a name for herself in Christian music
MEDFORD — From her humble beginnings as a child in Medford, Christie Cook rose above the mundane, making a name for herself in the world of contemporary Christian music.
Her album “New Day” hit shelves in December 2008, but that is not the only thing Cook is famous for.
Musician, minister, former teacher, mother and wife, she is also the co-owner with her husband, Stan, of the Fair Breeze Cottage, a bed and breakfast cabin in Nacogdoches, Texas, the city Cook now calls home.
Born Christie Hill, she grew up two miles east of Medford on her parents’ farm, the youngest of seven children. She said both her mother, Carol Fisk, and father, Tom Hill, were an inspiration to her, instilling in her a wonder for God and an appreciation for music early on.
“Dad always taught me an appreciation for the things in life that some people take for granted,” Cook said. She said he would point out things like the moon, the sounds that could be heard in nature and the birds that flew overhead. “As a child, he kind of drew my mind closer to God by pointing out God’s creation.”
Cook’s mother was an artist, signing her up for piano lessons at a young age and letting her play music with the family even when she was very young.
“She gave me a pot and a spoon, and I was able to play on the pot with the spoon,” Cook said, because she was too young to play a drum set.
Cook remembers, too, how fond she was of her teachers in Medford.
“I remember them well. I have such fond memories of Medford High School,” she said.
But it wasn’t just her public school teachers who left an impression. In private piano lessons, when she was only about 8 years old, she was told something she would never forget.
“I was very fond of my piano teacher, Mrs. Sanders,” Cook said. “She once said to me, ‘Christie, you have something in you that will never burn out.’”
That eternal flame was music. Phyllis Sanders had been one of the first in Cook’s life to discover her talent for music.
“Christie was particularly musical — a very sensitive youngster who stayed with it longer than most of them,” Sanders said. “She was a delight to work with.”
In fact, it was a scholarship to study music at Stephen F. Austin State University that brought Cook to Nacogdoches. She graduated with a double major in piano performance and Spanish in 1987. Then she began teaching high school Spanish. She went on to get her master’s degree from Texas A&M University and took her language lessons to the college classroom.
Cook was married with two daughters, Morgan, 16, and Chloe, 7, and she had one album under her belt, “Their Stories Do Linger,” that she released in 1997. She said it was then that the idea for her bed and breakfast began to bloom.
“I was teaching at the university,” she said. “I love to teach, but not as much as I love music. I wanted to be with my girls and I wanted to be with my music. I wanted to pursue my music ministry.”
So in 2002, Cook and her husband Stan opened Fair Breeze Cottage in Nacogdoches. The name of the cottage was synonymous with the title track of the album she had released in 2001. As the bed and breakfast opened on 46 acres of land in the oldest town in Texas, “Fair Breeze,” the song, won Best Celtic Song at the 2002 Just Plain Folks Music Awards.
Now Cook is able to work at the bed and breakfast, spend more time at home with her daughters and find time for her music as well. She said she often fits in time after the work at the cottage is done and her girls are tucked away in bed.
Even her colleagues attest to her unusual ambition and determination toward music. Gerry Putnam, a musical engineer who put the final touches on her newest CD, said Cook has always been completely in control of her career and she does more work in one day than most people do in a week.
“She’s probably one of the most capable people I know,” Putnam said. He said she is not only a wonderful singer-songwriter, but also a craftsmen who applies soft music to her deep faith to make Christian teachings accessible to everyone.
“It is challenging finding time,” she said, “but I pray about God giving me that time and balance.”
Cook also finds time to reach out with her music, in the form of ministry, performing at benefit concerts, homeless shelters, and even in prisons. As for the album released last year, it probably won’t be the last. Cook is so in tune with her music that she said she is always thinking about it.
“In my heart, that music is not ever quiet.”
Cook’s CD is available at The Little Professor bookstore, on iTunes and via her Web site www.christiecooksongs.com.
Melissa Kaelin can be reached at 444-2372.
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