![]() This full-length collaboration is years in the making, or wishing, especially on the part of Carlile, who’d vowed years ago that the two-song project they did would be just a taste of greater things to come. I think this time the songs need to be in service to the artist.’ So that really did change things for me - it’s changed the way I look at songwriting, at least for my own artist career moving forward.” I said to Brandi, ‘I just always wanna respect the songs and be in service to the songs.’ And Brandi was like: ‘I think that needs to change. And I always feel disrespectful to the other songwriters to make changes on the on the fly in the studio. “She and I were talking early on about making some changes to some songs, ad that’s really tough for me, because, while there’s one that I wrote by myself, most of ’em are co-written. Then on this record, working with Brandi Carlile, she sort of pushed me to go further into that - nothing too light.” (Although the presence of a rocking murder ballad, to which Derek Trucks adds a smoking guitar solo, may count, sort of.)Ĭlark brings up some other ways in which Carlile gently pushed her, even before they went in together to Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studios in Malibu late last year. I’m kind of melancholy that way, and I love that. “Truthfully, I love both things,” meaning meaning both humor-tinged and dramatic material, Clark says, “but if left to my own devices, I’d do an album full of ballads. Which is maybe why “Brandy Clark” is just a little more serious in tone than some of the more comic-leaning songs of hers that people have loved since her debut album in 2012, like “Stripes,” “Girl Next Door” and her Randy Newman duet “Bigger Boat” (not to mention “Follow Your Arrow” and most of the largely farcical “Shucked” score). Part of Carlile’s contribution, coming aboard as a kind of coach, was to disabuse her of the idea that her songs should be that malleable. And even in herself becoming one of the most critically acclaimed artists working in any kind of country-adjacent area, Clark never completely rid herself of the idea that the songs she wrote could wind up being cut by anybody. ![]() Notably, one of the songs she worked on with another artist, Kacey Musgraves’ history-making “Follow Your Arrow,” earned everyone involved a song of the year CMA Award in 2014. We’ll have more to report on “Shucked,” too, soon enough, but for now the subject is the record that just got officially announced on Friday, which could put her back into contention for Grammys alongside the Tony consideration her other project is likely to get.Ĭlark had a lot of experience as a Nashville-based songwriter-for-hire prior to and since making her own records. Variety caught up with Clark in a break room at the rehearsal space for “Shucked,” the Broadway musical (opening April 5) for which she co-wrote the soon-to-be-acclaimed song score with another writing powerhouse, Shane McAnally. The album “Brandy Clark” is not the only big thing on Brandy-with-a-Y’s dance card this year. ![]() But Brandi is amazing, is how much she wants to prop other artists up. “We’re both from Washington State we’re both gay - we have a lot in common,” says Clark, picking out some of the obvious shared bio points. Beyond that, there are even more borderline-spooky commonalities that make it seem like they were both born under a good sign. ![]() Their occasionally confused monograms are among the least of the things the two have in common, since both have enjoyed years of mutual acclaim among music fans who are partial to top-flight Americana or country sounds, or simply the classic singer-songwriter style. ![]() Clark recently completed her fourth album - a self-titled one - for Warner Records, and the just-announced May 19 release is produced by possibly her biggest fan: Carlile. But those same eyes will not be seeing double if, in the very near future, you end up seeing both those names in close conjunction, a lot. Your eyes have deceived you if you ever took too quick a look at a passing reference to one of the great singer-songwriters of our day and mistook Brandy Clark for Brandi Carlile or vice versa. ![]()
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