coco hames - songwriter

As founder and frontwoman of The Ettes and Parting Gifts and as a solo artist, Coco Hames has been celebrated as one of the last great purveyors of classic songcraft, with American Songwriter hailing her as an artist “reviving a time now lost in contemporary music,” while The Guardian swooned that she has “a voice like Ronnie Spector.”

Hames’ indelible songs have long made her material a go-to for music supervisors and advertising companies. Her work has soundtracked dozens of TV shows (Friday Night Lights, Shameless), films (Drew Barrymore's Whip It!, Greta Gerwig’s Lola Versus, Kogonada's Columbus) and major commercial campaigns (Motorola, Victoria’s Secret, Rimmel). 

Signing as a solo artist to venerable indie label Merge Records, Hames released her self-titled solo debut in 2017. AllMusic praised the album as “burnished Americana that's equal parts classic country weepers, downhearted girl group melodrama, and sad rock & roll ballads.” While the U.K.’s Uncut magazine raved that the record was filled with “audacious moments that combine the stately emotionalism of '60s torch singers with the all-caps exuberance of a particularly sharp garage-rock band.”

As a composer Hames’ evocative songs continue to be used and valued by creatives. She’s written and performed original material for the award-winning Disney channel program Wander Over Yonder, ABC’s hit drama Nashville and CBS’ NCIS series, and is a voting member of both The Recording Academy and SAG/AFTRA. 

Hames cofounded Fond Object -- a record store, arts collective, performance venue, and record label in East Nashville, Tennessee -- where she also cofounded Tennessee Hollow, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit animal rescue. She was also a touring member of Canadian supergroup The New Pornographers, performing on Late Night with David Letterman.

During its initial decade together, Hames’ LA/Nashville guitar-pop combo The Ettes released four critically acclaimed albums and two EPs, appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, played over a thousand shows, and toured across the U.S. and Europe with Jack White and The Dead Weather, The Black Keys and Kings of Leon, among others. 

Now The Ettes are back in 2026 with new music recorded at Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree, California with Dave Catching (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal) and Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather, City and Colour).

Visit The Ettes' socials for more.