Brandy Clark - "Big Day In A Small Town"

[George Strait Junkie]

wow just like the first album another home run here Brandy can do no wrong in my book not one bad song cant wait to have this CD in my collection

heres my ranking

1. Love Can Go To Hell
2. Daughter
3. Drinkin', Smokin', Cheatin
4. Soap Opera
5. Big Day In A Small Town
6. Three Kids No Husband
7. Homecoming Queen
8. You Can Come Over
9. Since You've Gone To Heaven
10. Girl Next Door
11. Broke

[sabre14]

What an album. I didn't think she would match 12 Stories but this came pretty close.

I love the production and intrinsic Country instrumentation on every track. It just sounds so elegant and allows the melodies of these songs to shine through.

I don't see many songs on this album doing great at radio but they're are a couple I could see them going with; one being "Homecoming Queen." I love the feel and melody of the song and it fits Brandy's vocals very well. I could also see "Broke" working as a single, although the track is pretty rootsy for mainstream radio. I could also see Brandy's version (well aware she wrote it) of "Love Can Go To Hell" going to radio.

Probably the most beautiful songs on the album are "Three Kids No Husband" and "Since You've Gone To Heaven" -- I don't see either being singles but are brilliantly written.

I even love the quirky lyrics and production on "Broke." I can't find one bad song on the album. Hard to believe "Girl Next Door" is towards the back of the best this record has to offer.

Rankings: :)

1. "Homecoming Queen"
2. "Three Kids No Husband"
3. "Daughter"
4. "Since You've Gone To Heaven"
5. "Love Can Go To Hell"
6. "Drinkin', Smokin', Cheatin'"
7. "Soap Opera"
8. "Big Day In A Small Town"
9. "Girl Next Door"
10. "Broke"
11. "You Can Come Over"

[Deleted]

So so so so good. "Since You've Go e To Heaven" is perfect, hits sort of close to home right now.

[tryexp]

Great album. I love Since You've Gone To Heaven and Daughter, but all the other songs are pretty good.

[dub]

I really enjoyed everything on this. I've been playing "Love Can Go To Hell" non-stop for the past few weeks, so I've been looking forward to this album. Now that I think about it, I think I've listened to Lori McKenna's version of Three Kids No Husband.

01. Love Can Go To Hell
02. You Can Come Over
03. Three Kids No Husband - "she knows she don't make the best cup of coffee" gutted me
04. Broke
05. Since You've Gone To Heaven - I really liked the idea of this song but the verse about the sawmill was weird
06. Soap Opera
07. Big Day In A Small Town
08. Homecoming Queen
09. Girl Next Door
10. Drinkin' Smokin' Cheatin'
11. Daughter

[sabre14]

Brandy Clark never forgets about home:

The hordes of music fans who will pour into Nashville this week for the CMA Music Festival hail from some of America's smallest towns.

They've saved up to travel here for the chance to see the biggest country stars on Music City's biggest stage. Among them will be a singer who can relate.

Brandy Clark was lured to Music City by hooky songs, recognizable names and dreams of fame nearly 20 years ago. Today, she’s one of country music’s leading women, lending a thoughtful, articulate voice to small town life.

Clark, a multiple Grammy nominee, grew up in Morton, Wash., then population: 900. She listened to Patty Loveless on the radio and dreamed of moving to Nashville. Soon after she arrived in Music City in 1997, her roommate’s boyfriend slipped her passes to Fan Fair. The Pacific Northwesterner had never heard of the event now called CMA Music Festival, but she was hooked.

“I went to everything,” Clark recalls of that first year. During those days, the event was held at Nashville’s fairgrounds. “I remember sitting there and looking at the big screen and thinking, ‘Wow, that would be so awesome.’ That was always a big dream of mine — to play … CMA Fest.”

Her dream will come true again Friday, the same day she will release her second album, “Big Day in a Small Town.” Clark will play the CMA Music Festival’s free Chevrolet Riverfront Stage at 10 a.m. Later in the day, she will host a ticketed album release party at aVenue where she plans to perform her album front to back and sign autographs for fans.

“If you spend two minutes with Brandy, you come away loving her,” said Charlie Cook, vice president of Country Cumulus Media. “She is warm and friendly. It is not easy for newcomers to get on the radio today, but Brandy is beginning to get play and the song has a great hook.”

The new album is home to Clark’s current single, “Girl Next Door,” a catchy women’s anthem about being “the perfect mess.” But the album, which Warner Music Nashville Chairman and CEO John Esposito calls a “masterpiece,” is deeper than that.

“Brandy knows how to look at everyday events that we all live and think about and say it in a few sentences that paints the entire movie of us,” he said. “It’s a magic that is indescribable.”

When fans hear her sing songs from “Big Day in a Small Town” — music about homecoming queens, financial struggle, family and heart-wrenching loss — it will transport them back to the most poignant parts of home.

In her younger days, Clark didn't have an appreciation for her hometown, but the unexpected loss of her father 15 years ago gave her new perspective.

“He was killed in a logging accident way young,” Clark said, seated backstage after a performance at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Her voice was thick with emotion, as she shared the memory. “When I started to love my small town was when I came back for his funeral, and it was so big they had to have it in the gym. I said, ‘That doesn’t happen anywhere else unless you’re Elvis.’ That’s when small towns really resonated with me.”

Feeling pressure to follow up her critically acclaimed debut album, “12 Stories,” Clark was moved by her small town upbringing to start assembling an album of songs that reflected that life. When she pitched producer Jay Joyce, he didn’t immediately share her vision — telling her simply growing up in a small town didn’t warrant an album on the theme. Joyce asked pointed questions about her motivation for “Big Day in a Small Town” that helped her hone what she wanted to say. When she got to the part about rediscovering her hometown through the loss of her father, Joyce relented.

The last song on Clark’s album, “Since You’ve Gone to Heaven,” was inspired by the loss of her father and the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that happened soon after. Clark was watching the ticker tape at the bottom of a television screen and thought that since her father died “the whole world has gone to hell.”

Clark held on to the song idea through her time of grief and later wrote the lyrics based on her family’s experience — but not exactly. Like everything on that album, she said it “starts with a grain of truth.”

Lyrics include: Since you’ve gone to heaven I don’t like coming home|But I can’t stand the thought of mom in that big house alone|She can’t keep it up, she really ought to sell|Oh that house without you in it is nothing but a shell|Since you’ve gone to Heaven the whole world’s gone to hell.

Clark isn’t sure she would have included the song on the album had it not been for her conversation with Joyce. It wasn’t redemptive, but she said death “does bring you home.”

Another song, “Three Kids No Husband,” is an ode to hardworking single moms, although the singer said fans have told her the song speaks to their fathers, too.

Clark sings: She’s got three kids — no husband|And a hairnet job at a diner on Main|She knows damn well — she don’t make the best cup of coffee|But she’s quick with a smile and good with names|Those lunch tickets ain’t gonna tip themselves.

"I think Brandy stands out because she is pure honesty," said Lori McKenna, Clark's friend and co-writer. The pair penned "Three Kids No Husband" together. "She finds a way to bring out the incredible in the most everyday characters. She brings out their flaws and somehow makes you love them even more because of them."

All of the songs aren’t serious. “Soap Opera” is a lighthearted look at small town gossip, and the title track is about turning everyday life into something extraordinary. It’s those memories that draw her closer to her community — and the pride she knows the town’s residents feel for her every time she crosses another career milestone. Her favorite high school basketball coach texted her the week before she was scheduled to appear on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and said, “You know the only person my wife loves more than Ellen is you. Is there any way she can get a ticket?”

“That just melts me,” Clark said. “I’m so emotional. Being from a small town, the people you care the most about their approval — they are the people who were your teachers and that sat next to you in class. Most people don’t know what they mean to people until they’re dead.”

Clark’s grandmother kept a large atlas and marked each state she had visited with a big red X. Growing up, Clark had only been to a couple of nearby states, but when she saw her grandmother’s map, it was covered in red. When the singer moved to Nashville, her grandmother marked the town with a star, which to Clark was significant. One day in Morton, she asked her grandmother about the prettiest place she’d ever visited. The old woman started to talk, recalling seeing this or that, but stopped.

“She said, ‘You’re going to see a lot of places in your life, but there’s no place that will ever be as pretty as right here,’ ” Clark recalled. “And it’s not because it’s beautiful because it is. It is because it is your home.’ And that is so true. And I hope that when people hear this record that’s what they feel. ‘Oh, that’s home.’ ”

The Tennessean

[someguy]

This album is great. I don't usually like to listen to albums before I buy them, but I had a bit of extra time, so I figured why not. I've heard about half of these songs live already, when I saw her with Jennifer Nettles a few months ago, so I assumed that I would like the album, but it has surpassed my expectations. I think I may like it more than 12 Stories. I'll have to see over time though.

I love Sheryl Crow's version of "Homecoming Queen", but Brandy's is very good also. She's sped it up a bit. There isn't a bad track on here, but my initial favourites are "Homecoming Queen", "Three Kids No Husband", "Girl Next Door", "Daughter" and "Soap Opera".

In terms of singles, I don't really know that radio will bite on anything, but "Broke" seems like the logical choice. I just put in an Amazon pre-order for the album....looking forward to being able to listen to it repeatedly.

[kim8]

I saw Brandy twice this weekend, once solo and once with Jennifer Nettles. She played all but 2 of the songs on this album. I think it's fantastic. I like all the songs. Love Can Go to Hell stands out to me and Daughter is fun. Three Kids No Husband is beautiful. I hope she has some commercial success with this album. I think she's incredibly talented and has a really beautiful voice.

[CoJoFan]

Female version of Eric Church? Or am I making the wrong comparison?

[d3vin44]

First off, I LOVE the way they blended the end of Soap Opera in with Girl Next Door. Great album, I'm not sure if it is as good as 12 Stories, we shall see how this grows on me.

Now for my rankings!

Broke
Girl Next Door
Soap Opera
Love Can Go To Hell
Three Kids No Husband
Big Day In a Small Town
Homecoming Queen
Drinkin' Smokin' Cheatin'
You Can Come Over
Daughter
Since You've Gone To Heaven

I grew up and live about an hour from Brandy's hometown. Its a tiny logging community and I spent many summers camping there. Its so much fun to listen to her songs and I can totally picture how she came about writing them.

[anafan]

She delivered again. Great album!

[onebuffalo]

#8 country, #84 top 200 album with 7000 sold. Congratulations, Brandy Clark!

[travelrocks24]

It seems Brandy's label is trying multiple songs on Mediabase to see what sticks.

[.indulgecountry]

Aug 22, 2016 9:21:55 GMT -5 travelrocks24 said:

It seems Brandy's label is trying multiple songs on Mediabase to see what sticks.

It was just announced that "Love Can Go to Hell" is her new single. They had been testing that one alongside "Broke" and "Three Kids No Husband," but evidently "Hell" won out.

[travelrocks24]

Aug 22, 2016 13:49:38 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Aug 22, 2016 9:21:55 GMT -5 travelrocks24 said:

It seems Brandy's label is trying multiple songs on Mediabase to see what sticks.

It was just announced that "Love Can Go to Hell" is her new single. They had been testing that one alongside "Broke" and "Three Kids No Husband," but evidently "Hell" won out.

I see.....she has a gig in Baltimore before the year is out that was just announced.