Brandy Clark grew up in the small town of Morton, Washington listening to the likes of Barbara Mandrell, Ronnie Milsap, Alan Jackson, and Patsy Cline. She moved to Nashville after high school to attend Belmont University to study music business. Since then she has been writing songs that have been recorded by artists like Reba, Keith Urban, and Craig Morgan. This year she was nominated for two CMA Awards and is currently on tour with Eric Church on The Outsiders World Tour, Brandy recently took the time to talk to New England Country Music about her CMA nominations, songwriting, and touring.
2014 has been a busy year for Brandy. She spent most of it out on the road with Jennifer Nettles including a handful of stops in New England. During this tour Jennifer asked Brandy to join her on stage to sing ‘His Hands.’ Brandy said that at first she was really nervous and didn’t want to do it because Jennifer is such a great entertainer and singer, she was like “oh man how am I going to stand up next to Jennifer and do that.” She then said that, “as the tour went on it became one of my favorite parts of the tour.”
In addition to touring with Jennifer Nettles, Brandy also had the opportunity to perform at both the Ryman Auditorium and Madison Square Garden. We asked her which place was more inspiring or more meaningful to her and she told us the Ryman would always be the place that was always more inspiring and meaningful because of the love she has for country music. She also said that because of all of the legends that have performed on the Ryman stage that it would “always be one of the most if not the most nerve wracking venue I ever play.”
Brandy went from touring with Jennifer Nettles to touring with Eric Church and it was recently announced that Brandy would be joining Alan Jackson on his 25th Anniversary Tour beginning in January 2015. She said that means a lot to her because to her Alan Jackson is a living legend. She also said, “I remember when Alan Jackson’s music first came out. It was around the same time that we first got CMT in our house. He was a new artist at that point and was something that pulled me further into country music.”
(Photo courtesy of David McClister)
For the second year in a row Brandy was nominated for CMA Song of the Year for ‘Follow Your Arrow’ which she co-wrote with Kacey Musgraves and Shane McAnally. She said that being nominated for Song of the Year is amazing because it means the industry is taking notice of the work she is doing. She also said, “to have them say ok we think you’re in the top 5 songs of this whole year is pretty big, a pretty nice pat on the back. To win would be an even bigger pat on the back.” But Brandy (and Shane and Kacey) didn’t just get nominated for the award… they won it! After winning the award when asked how she felt, Clark said, “When I came off stage, Vince Gill grabbed me and said ‘you just won the biggest award you can ever win. I know, I’ve won them all and this one means the most to me.’ That about sums it up!”
‘Follow Your Arrow’ is just one of the songs that Brandy has written. She has also written songs that have been recorded by artists like Miranda Lambert, The Band Perry, Reba McEntire, and Craig Morgan. She said that at first she preferred writing by herself, but now she enjoys co-writing because, “I’ve found some great collaborations that are amazing to me and that inspire me.” We asked Brandy about working with the members of Old Dominion and she told us, “We’ve been good friends for a long time. Trevor Rosen is honestly one of my favorite collaborators.” Trevor and Brandy have co-written many songs such as ‘Better Dig Two’ that they co-wrote with Shane McAnally, they also co-wrote Craig Morgan’s current single ‘We’ll Come Back Around’ with Jessie Jo Dillon.
In addition to being nominated for Song of the Year, she was also nominated for New Artist of the Year. Brandy said that being nominated for New Artist of the Year shocked her, and “she didn’t expect that at all.” Just like last year’s New Artist of the Year, Kacey Musgraves, Brandy is the only woman nominated in the category. Brandy said of herself and Kacey, “we’re lucky that we get to represent women in country music.”
So what’s next for Brandy Clark? Brandy will be out on tour with Eric Church until the middle of November. She’ll be back out on the road with Alan Jackson at the beginning of the year. She recently signed with Warner Bros. Records and will be working on her next album. We are going to be hearing from Brandy Clark for years to come.
You can follow Brandy on Twitter, Facebook, and her official website.