Brandy Clark has been working in music as a singer and songwriter for over a decade. Her songs blend country, folk and Americana with honest lyrics and standout melodies. As a songwriter and collaborator, her songs have been recorded bySheryl Crow, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Kacey Musgraves and many more.
Clark debuted as a solo artist in 2013 with her album 12 Stories, and has since released three other studio albums including her latest self-titled in 2023 produced by Brandi Carlile.
Clarks says she thanks her mother and grandparents for her musical taste. "My grandma would say there were two kinds of music —country and Western," Clark recalls. "And my parents were listening to what was on country radio at that point in time, which would have been the early 80s, which was sort of a pop country phase... I think, you know, I grew up in a time where it was not only great singers, it was great songs."
While people may not associate the West Coast where Clark grew up as a country music hub, she notes that the Bakersfield movement of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard was a key part of the area's music history. Today, it continues to influence her style as Clark has fully leaned into Americana - whereas her earlier albums featured more of a traditional country music sound both in song structure and instrumentation.
"I think the values of where I come from are represented in country and Americana music. I mean, I grew up in a very blue collar, hardworking small town. To me, that's Americana," Clark explains. "Not necessarily even the genre of music, just when we say Americana, that's where I grew up."
Clark says that she feels the two genres of country and Americana are really melding together more recently, but starting out her career in country music was a little more constricting.
"I definitely started out more country, and I think what happened to me was that Americana really embraced me in a way that country didn’t completely as far as the commercial lane. And so because of that I leaned into the more Americana parts of what I did, and that was when I made this last record with Brandi Carlile," says Clark. "[Brandi] said, 'I feel like you straddle this line between country and Americana, and if I produce your record, I can help pull you over squarely into Americana.' Which I feel is what happened and was pretty awesome."
Clark admits over the last two records she's made she's had to let go of things being perfect in the studio. "That's a very Nashville, country thing to get everything just perfect and Americana's looser. Same way with songwriting — there's a country songwriting discipline that I feel so lucky to have learned in grew up in that Americana doesn't adhere to in a beautiful way," she says.
Working with Carlile on the Brandy Clark record, Clark was encouraged to return to writing in a way that served herself more. "Americana doesn't lean on the clever. It's really about the raw, dirty, I think Americana has dirt under their fingernails. That's what it feels like to me," she adds.
One of her biggest songs that exemplifies this shift to writing more from the heart is Clark's single "Dear Insecurity," which won the Grammy for Best Americana Performance and Song of the Year at the 2024 Americana Honors & Awards.
I think I've always felt like one of my gifts is that I can really speak to human truths.Brandy Clark
"I think I've always felt like one of my gifts is that I can really speak to human truths, and I think what 'Dear Insecurity' did was that spoke to my human truth," says Clark. "In a story song, [singing the truth is] never hard because you're telling a story, but sometimes in a first-person song it does get a little harder. But I think that that's where we connect with an audience because if I feel that, a couple million other people feel it."
Clark worked with Milwaukee string duo Sista Strings comprised of sisters Chauntee and Monique Ross, not only for her Grammy performance (as seen in video above) but also has featured them performing strings on her recent albums as well as toured together. Clark is working on a new album and notes that Sista Strings will have a feature on it as well.
"For starters ... just as people I loved them when they've been on the road with me. When they leave, it's a big let down because they just are joyful and they're amazing and they can have fun and still be pros," Clark says. "Not only are they supremely talented and entertaining people, they're so unique... I think that they will bring so many people into the classical music world, which a lot of times I think younger people don't think is cool, but when they see them playing it with the way they're dressed and their hair and just how cool they are, it becomes really cool."
Throughout her entire career, collaborations with other artists have been ever-present. "I personally love collaboration and have learned and grown the most as a writer through collaborating," notes Clark. "I always learn from my collaborators, even when it's not the greatest experience, I learn something."
While Clark has written for both herself and for other artists, she says that her writing mindset stays the same of fighting for the "the truest truth in the room — whether I say it or someone else says it."
As Clark goes between producing and recording in the studio to touring and writing, she says she leans on the classics when she needs some inspiration.
"If I'm blocked writing wise, I'll listen to Dolly [Parton] or Merle Haggard - those are real go-to's for me. I go back to that well because the songs are so well written and they make me feel something," Clark explains. "And probably what also part of it is, is it takes me back to when I was discovering music... I think if we can keep ourselves in discovery art is better."
Brandy Clark will be performing in Milwaukee on June 22 at The Argo.
