Ed Cosens teams up with Toby Lee for ‘I Need Your Love So Bad’

Ed Cosens has shared I Need Your Love So Bad with Toby Lee, a new collaboration that forms part of his forthcoming Songs With Friends EP.

The project grew from Cosens’ travels as a songwriter and his determination to move beyond the familiar territory of his years in indie bands. What began as a small Instagram series — recording snippets of favourite songs with artists he happened to be writing alongside — has developed into a full collaborative release.

Ed Cosens and Toby Lee revisit a Peter Green favourite

For I Need Your Love So Bad, Cosens turned to guitarist Toby Lee, whom he first met at a songwriting camp in Texas. Lee had already twice been named Young Blues Guitarist of the Year, and Cosens immediately saw him as the right musician to take on a song so closely associated with one of his own guitar heroes, Peter Green.

Cosens says Lee’s contribution transformed the recording, taking what had initially felt like a relatively safe backing track and giving it a much stronger identity. It also captures the wider point of Songs With Friends: putting the songs themselves first and seeing what happens when musicians from different backgrounds work together.

The EP also features Grammy-winning songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman, Starsailor’s James Walsh, Daisy Chute, Jean Rohe and Toby Lee, with material associated with Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, The Everly Brothers, Simon & Garfunkel and Creedence Clearwater Revival among the songs explored.

Recorded live over two days at Crystal Ship Studios in Sheffield with Adam Crofts and David Glover, the project also includes sessions recorded in Nashville, London and New York. Dave Sanderson engineered and mixed the EP, with mastering by Sam Proctor at Lismore Mastering.

For Cosens, formerly guitarist and songwriter with Reverend And The Makers, the collaborative release sits between his first two solo albums and the next stage of his own material. A further EP is due later in 2026, with a third full-length album also in development.

North East audiences can also catch Cosens live later this year when his tour reaches The Glasshouse in Gateshead on Sunday 6 December 2026.