page_title: This Side of the Moon
section_title: Background and recording
hierarchical_section_title: This Side of the Moon / Background and recording
caption_attribution_description: English: Randy Scruggs at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, 2009
context_page_description: This Side of the Moon is the third studio album by American singer Elizabeth Cook. It received a soft release on August 2004 through the labels Hog Country Production and Emergent Music Marketing before getting a larger release in May 17, 2005. Cook released her second studio album Hey Y'all with Warner Bros., but left the label the following year.
  Cook developed music for This Side of the Moon independently, working with five producers in eight Nashville recording studios. It is a country album with lyrics focusing on love and heartbreak, while also discussing Cook's disappointment with Warner Bros and her departure from the label.
  The album received a positive response upon release and in retrospective reviews. Critics compared Cook's vocals to other country artists, including Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. Cook promoted the album with a summer tour and live performances at the Grand Ole Opry and international music festivals. Despite its critical acclaim, This Side of the Moon did not receive any airplay and was commercially unsuccessful.
context_section_description: Elizabeth Cook signed a recording contract with Atlantic after receiving positive reviews for The Blue Album, her self-released, debut studio album. The recording sessions for her second studio album Hey Y'all began in the spring of 2001, but the release would be delayed because of record label issues. When AOL-Time Warner—which owned Atlantic—closed its Nashville office, Cook was then transferred to the parent company Warner Bros. As a result, Hey Y'all and its lead single "Stupid Things" had "little label support", and neither received any airplay. Cook voluntarily left Warner Bros. to look for other options in 2003.
  This Side of the Moon was inspired by Cook's departure from Warner Bros. which she characterized as her "divorce from Music Row" as well as a "period of extreme frustration". While reflecting on her career in 2017, Cook said her first three albums were "tethered to Music Row", and recalled being "very conflicted with the responsibility of having mainstream radio hits". She said this changed with the 2007 release of her fourth studio album Balls which she said allowed her to feel "very liberated as a songwriter". Jeff Gordon, the executive producer for This Side of the Moon, told Cook that she used songwriting as a way to heal, and she joked it was because she "can’t afford therapy beyond a lavender-scented candle".
  According to Cook's website, This Side of the Moon was developed from separate "song experiments". In a No Depression article, Grant Alden described the album as a "collection of demos she scraped together" following her Warner Bros. deal. The songs were handled by five producers, including Randy Scruggs and Sugar Hill's A&R director Steve Fishell, and recorded in eight recording studios throughout Nashville. A majority of the album was produced by Gordon, was also mastered the songs. "Funny Side of Love" was one of the first songs recorded. In 2005, Cook told the Country Standard Time that she preferred being an independent artist, saying: "This is much more grass-roots, more real to me."
  Cook has writing credits on all of the album's thirteen songs. She co-wrote seven of the tracks with songwriter Hardie McGehee, with whom she worked with because they were signed to the same music publisher. The pair had previously collaborated on seven songs for Hey Y'all. Cook is the sole writer of two songs ("Ruthless" and "Heather Are You With Me Tonight"), and co-wrote "Where the Blue Begins" with her then-husband Tim Carroll, which they recorded as a duet.
caption: Elizabeth Cook collaborated with eight producers, including Randy Scruggs (pictured in 2009), for "song experiments" which were later grouped together on This Side of the Moon.
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