Hailed as Nashville’s “Americana Queen” (Vice/Noisey), Mary Bragg has quietly become one of Music City’s most respected artists/songwriters/producers. The Swainsboro, GA native began to fully come into her own with her critically acclaimed 2017 record Lucky Strike, which was praised by NPR as a “sublime distilling of Southern grit.” It was followed by Violets as Camouflage, which earned further acclaim from Rolling Stone as a “mix of classic country twang and gentle chamber-pop” as well as NPR Music who named it one of the year’s best and raved “These gorgeously crafted and executed songs touch the listener on a deep level, where insight occurs.” Bragg would take her fervent, vulnerable songwriting to the highest level with her 2022 self-titled album Mary Bragg, a lush and achingly gorgeous collection of raw, honest, and unguarded new songs that confront heartbreak, grief, and self-actualization. No Depression called it a “personal and powerful set featuring a courageous plumb line,” while Americana Highways hailed, “Mary Bragg levels up as songwriter and producer,” and Folk Alley said her “exquisite vocal performances convey her struggles and triumphs with both intimacy and vulnerability. As we listen, we live her pain alongside her. We feel with her the tentativeness of moving forward, acknowledging regret, and grasping hope.” Bragg tours extensively, both with her band and solo, playing headline and festival dates to ever-growing audiences across the US, Canada, and Europe. Having opened tours for the Indigo Girls, The Secret Sisters, Mick Flannery, and Caroline Spence, Bragg is gearing up for a robust new chapter, because, as Saving Country Music said, “Watch out.”
Every great song is essentially a secret told to a stranger. And when the truth is clear, the stranger recognizes themselves in it. Whether those conversations happen from the stage, in therapy, or between strangers at an airport bar, they’re all attempts to bridge the distance between people. With her sixth full-length album, Bragg does just that, as she delivers a collection of deeply personal stories offered to the outside world. Across twelve songs written with notable co-writers including Mindy Smith, Maia Sharp, Brady Stablein, and Zach Berkman, she approaches memory, longing, and self-acceptance with grace and lyrical finesse anchored by her signature songwriting craft that “beautifully weaves rock, folk, and Americana” (Vice/Noisey) and has been hailed by NPR as a “refined, sumptuously melancholy take on southern storytelling.”
After years of producing and engineering her own work, as well as for others (including Grace Pettis, The Accidentals, and Jackson Emmer), Bragg handed off the reins this time in order to expand her sonic landscape and open herself up to new creative possibilities. The search led her two hours southwest to Muscle Shoals, where Ben Tanner and John Paul White were waiting with open ears. Bragg quickly found a kindredness with White, Tanner, and the Shoals, having grown up in a similar topographical and cultural small town in rural Georgia. Together, they assembled a dream team of players, including drummer Chad Gamble (Jason Isbell's 400 Unit), bassist Zac Cockrell (Alabama Shakes) and guitarist/keyboardist Jay Gonzalez (Drive-By Truckers). The result is a record that moves beyond easy categorization, one that stretches Americana to include indie rock, pop, early '80s radio vibes and southern soul.
“Being in the Shoals felt like home to me. But I’ll attribute the feeling largely to Ben and John, because we are all cut from the same cloth. When we started recording, none of us knew how joyful it would become, not only musically but personally.”
“Working with Mary is a producer’s dream,” stated White. “She’s a total pro, works hard, hits her marks. Sings beautifully - and like no other. This is one of my favorite projects I’ve had the pleasure and honor to produce - and no small part of that is how much I adore her as a person.”
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Every great song is essentially a secret told to a stranger. And when the truth is clear, the stranger recognizes themselves in it. Mary Bragg describes the title Secrets to Strangers as a "zoomed-out representation" of her latest release, a collection of deeply personal stories offered to the outside world. "All these spaces are invitations to share a truth for the sake of connecting your own experience to another human being's," Bragg says.
Across twelve songs, she approaches memory, longing, and self-acceptance with grace and lyrical finesse. Recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, a legendary room that captured landmark records by Aretha Franklin, Etta James, and countless others, one gets the sense, as more of Bragg's songs go to tape, that what is taking place will be a major career breakthrough. The hooky "Kid Flamingo," the bossa-tinged "I Like It Here," a poetic embrace of life's messiness: all come to life with co-producers Ben Tanner and John Paul White, stretching Americana to include indie rock, pop, early '80s radio vibes, and southern soul. "It's geographically neutral," Bragg says. "I like that it's not trying to satisfy the bounds of one genre." A dream team of players including Chad Gamble (Jason Isbell's 400 Unit), bassist Zac Cockrell (Alabama Shakes), and guitarist/keyboardist Jay Gonzalez (Drive-By Truckers) helped build the album alongside collaborators Maia Sharp, Mindy Smith, and John Paul White.
Bragg has quietly become one of Americana's most admired artists. NPR called her breakout Lucky Strike "one of the year's best," and Rolling Stone praised Violets as Camouflage for its "mix of classic country twang and gentle chamber-pop." A Berklee-trained producer herself, she handed off production duties this time, wanting to "expand what the songs could become in a way that was newly open to possibility."
The result is an album about giving yourself permission to enter a day without all the answers. "I hope that people who hear the record will immediately feel called to honor their own voices," Bragg says, "to hear their own joy and pain, and say, 'Yeah, that's me too.'"