That was around two years before her producer, Jay Joyce came onboard. I definitely knew that it would be the title and centrepiece of the album.” “I had some ideas swirling around in my head and that was one, and I kind of tried to build around it. Having grown up in a town with a population of just 900, you can see that some of it might be autobiographical, and she says that when the song, Big Day In A Small Town was written, she thought, “Boy, that would be a great title for an album.” But she just tucked it away and didn’t really think about it until she was getting ready to make a record again. Now she’s delivered the fine follow-up, Big Day In A Small Town, which contains so much energy, and is crammed with so many ideas, references and characters, that you need several listens to appreciate how well it hangs together, hooking you in and refusing to let go. Today, Brandy’s ambition is growing and she’s working towards getting her passion project, Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical, onto Broadway “soon after 2017”, which is another collaboration with long-time friend, Shane McAnally.īut before we get ahead of ourselves, if you haven’t already, you should first check out her 2013 debut album, 12 Stories, which had critics reaching for superlatives, and brought songwriting nominations and awards. But Reba cut those two songs and they both made the record.” And that was it. I mean, I recorded 14 songs for Big Day… and it has 11. She’d cut a song of mine for a previous album, but it fell off, because people usually record more songs than make the record. Then Reba McEntire recorded two of my songs for her All The Women I Am album. I had toiled away for a long time, and not had a lot of success as a writer. “I remember the real turning point, when I thought this could really happen. But was there a precise moment she looks back on as her big break? “Definitely,” she says. Fresh off the success of her Big Day In A Small Town album and tour, Brandy Clark tells Helen M Jerome how she writes such outrageously addictive songs, how she approaches intensely personal and taboo topics and how close she’s been to broke.īrandy Clark has been writing for years, for all kinds of country artists, from LeAnn Rimes and Kacey Musgraves to Keith Urban and Darius Rucker.

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