Elizabeth Cook could well be the best of the legion of DJs on Sirius XM. Her weekday “Apron Strings” show on the Outlaw Country channel reflects her personality, as she speaks frankly and sometimes brashly about her life, her musician friends, and everyday hard knocks in her engaging twang. She’d bring that same charm to solo appearances with just a guitar accompanying her stories and really well written songs.
Out on tour for the first time since the pandemic shutdowns, she has emerged as a completely different performer. Dressed in kind of a silvery space age Ziggy Stardust jumpsuit and surrounded by a three-piece rock band she roared through her headlining set at the Union Stage in Washington Saturday – a transformation that surprised at least some in the seated audience.
Cook has dropped the names of rock bands in her sassy songs before going for a full bore sound in her 2020 album “Aftermath,” whose excessive production more aligned with crossover roar of “The Perfect Girls of Pop” of which she refers on one of its singles. But in front of an electric band of long haired guitarists and a Mohawked drummer — and following a quiet and very well-received acoustic solo set from Waylon Payne — you’d hardly associate her with the honest and vulnerable persona she beams out on satellite radio.