Adam Cole, The Piano Teacher You Wish You'd Had the First Time

I save pianists time by teaching them better practice skills.

"Hard To Be Loved" performed by Adam Cole with the Willow Band live at Waller's Coffeeshop

06/04/2026

This was another song I co-wrote with Bradley Cole Smith. Like Pros and Cons, this tune started out as a 45 second instrumental clip meant for a Jimmy Carter Documentary. I took it, glued it onto itself several times, and wrote a song on it.

I tend to write first and ask questions later. If my words don’t make sense to me now, they usually mean a lot to me in a couple of years. So what does it mean that it’s “Hard to be loved?”

Carson McCullers wrote in The Ballad of the Sad Cafe that most of us would rather love than be loved. As someone who has loved much more than he has been loved (in a romantic way, I mean) I understand this sentiment at too deep a level. This song may have come from that place of longing.

It’s an attempt to suggest that maybe it’s not such a bad thing to receive love, even if it’s hard to do so. That puts a sweeter spin on my song than the McCullers book. It’s a very special unrequited love song.

"Hard To Be Loved" performed by Adam Cole with the Willow Band live at Waller's Coffeeshop Co-written by Bradley Cole Smith, this song proves that it's harder...

"Fleas In His Eyes" performed by Adam Cole with the Willow Band live at Waller's Coffeeshop

06/01/2026

When I was the keyboardist in The Front Porch Session Players the bass player and I had this running gag. He’d say some nonsequitur and suggest it should be a song, and I’d write the song.
That’s how “Orlando Morning” got written. If it had a strange title, I was going to find a way to make it a song. And I always did.
One day our drummer came in and told us he hadn’t been able to sleep because he’d had fleas in his eyes. I thought that sounded like the best name for a song ever. Some kind of a Shawn Mullins thing…I could HEAR the melody.
So I wrote it. (And my drummer hated it.)
Little did I know, “Fleas In His Eyes,” like so many of my other automatic writing songs, would end up pointing a bony finger right at me, reminding me of shortcomings I didn’t want to face. I thought I was writing a song, but I was trying to get through to myself.
“I feel like making a mistake…” “I think I’ll sabotage myself.” “I think I’ll throw it all away.”
As I listened to the words of the demo recording, I heard myself admitting that I am very good at self-sabotage, that I romanticize it, that I see my failings as somehow noble.
But they’re not. In fact, they’re mostly avoidable. I just have to stop thinking of myself as Napoleon.
A hard song to listen to. But a really easy song to sing. And my wife, who doesn’t give me a lot of compliments on my songs, really liked the way I sounded on this one.
See what you think.

"Fleas In His Eyes" performed by Adam Cole with the Willow Band live at Waller's Coffeeshop Here's a little song about self-sabotage.Adam Cole and the Willow Band performing live in concert at Waller's Coffeeshop in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, April 25...

"Every Day Is Beautiful" performed by Adam Cole with the Willow Band live at Waller's Coffeeshop

05/28/2026

After hours at the dealership I was ready to be on the road. They had parked my car at the end of the lot in this odd space that had low concrete barriers on either side. A voice in my head said, “Be careful.”

I wasn’t.

I turned too soon and my car ran over the barrier. When I came down, I heard the sound of rapidly escaping air. I got out of my car, looked at the tire, and cursed the day.

That meant more time at the dealership, more money spent, more misery. What could I do? I headed back and sheepishly let the dealership know I needed more help.
On the way home, driving on my new tire, I tried to reframe the event. It was good, I thought, because that was an old tire. No, that didn’t work.

It was good, I thought, because that tire could have burst anywhere and it happened where I could get help. Nope. Still depressed.

Wake up, I told myself. S**t happens. You spend your life trying to be safe all the time, to make sure your troubles are as efficient as possible. Now something happened outside your control and you have an opportunity to laugh about it, wake up, realize you’re not dead, you’re fine. The busted tire is that gift to you.
And then this song occurred to me.

"Every Day Is Beautiful" performed by Adam Cole with the Willow Band live at Waller's Coffeeshop Because it is.Adam Cole and the Willow Band performing live in co...

"Do the Math" performed by Adam Cole with the Willow Band live at Waller's Coffeeshop

05/24/2026

I wasn’t trying to pen a Schoolhouse Rock tune, although I’d have killed to be one of those people back in the day. It started this way.

From the moment I heard Peter Wolf’s “Come As You Are,” I was hooked. You don’t know that song? Of course not. Minor hit from the J. Geils vocalist with a very interesting video on MTV that gave the song legs for a minute.

The song stuck with me, and one day I wrote a song I thought was a lot like it. The math part was incidental. I’ve written much mathier, nerdier songs than this one.

Plus it had what I thought was a Kinks bridge (although I came to learn it was more like Ba*****ed Ladies). I enjoyed the way my voice sounded, the way I was able to play the piano for it, and I made a nice demo with my daughter singing along.

Having the band play it was a huge rush for me, to finally get this song in front of an audience. But Dina, my trusty companion and backup singer, insisted it was Schoolhouse Rock and proceeded to insert the “3, 6, 9” section over the fade out! What could I do?

Oh, and one other nice feature: It’s a singalong. The audience has been instructed to help us sing the outro with the two sides of a relationship: “1) You look so good together,” and “You’re better off without her,” that is, addition and subtraction!

Do the math.

"Do the Math" performed by Adam Cole with the Willow Band live at Waller's Coffeeshop Not your average schoolhouse rock tune.Adam Cole and the Willow B...