‘The Church Deserves the Best Music’: Michael Cochren’s New Album Is His Argument for It

For a few years in his early twenties, Michael Cochren played four hours a night in the only rooms in southern Indiana that paid for live music: clubs, VFW posts, moose lodges. Covers, mostly. What he brought into those rooms was a strange pile of influences. His grandparents sang in church; an aunt played gospel…