Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Five Minutes, Five Questions Brandy Clark
The past year or so has been a heady time for singer-songwriter Brandy Clark, who kicked off a new tour at The Hall in Little Rock last week.
“Shucked,” the musical she wrote with longtime pal Shane MacAnally, debuted on Broadway in April 2023; was nominated for a Tony Award for best original score; and makes its Arkansas premiere at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville Dec. 17-22.
“Brandy Clark,” her fourth studio album, was released in May and was produced by Brandi Carlile. “Dear Insecurity,” a duet of startling honesty with Carlile from that album, landed Clark her first Grammy, after 17 nominations, in February for best Americana performance.
Clark, who was born in Merton, Wash., has written hits for Miranda Lambert, Sheryl Crow, Kasey Musgraves, Darius Rucker, Reba McEntire, the Band Perry and others. In 2022 she collaborated with Mammoth Spring native Ashley McBryde on the 2022 album “Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville.”
Clark splits her time between Nashville, Tenn., and Los Angeles. When we chatted with her on the phone, she was in Los Angeles, where she was recovering from a bout with covid-19 and working on new songs.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q. You and Shane MacAnally worked on “Shucked” for years before it finally made it to Broadway, and there is an Arkansas connection to the production
in producer Jason Owen. Can you describe what it was like when it finally made it to Broadway?
A. I don’t know if I have the right words for it. It was 10 years of not knowing. In the beginning, we were so naive. Neither Shane nor myself had ever worked on something like that. You think it’s going to happen fast, but as time goes on you think, wow, is this ever going to happen? Thank God it did. It’s a lot of hard work, and it was beyond my wildest dreams.
Q. I read an interview with
you from 2014 where you talked about the rejection you were met with when you were trying to find a label for your first album, “12 Songs.” How did you cope with all of that?
A. I just kept going. But I definitely got down. I mean, every Nashville label passed on it, some more than once. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other.
Q. After so many nominations, what was your reaction when you heard that you’d won a Grammy?
A. It was elation. It was relief. It felt like I could breathe. When you’re nominated that many times and you don’t hear your name called … I always feel fortunate to be nominated, but there was a part of me that felt like if it didn’t happen this year, it was never going to happen. It hasn’t completely hit me yet. I know when I get the actual Grammy, that will be the biggest elation. To see it with my name on it and set it on my piano.
Q. Are songs you have written that are really emotional more difficult to perform live?
A. Oh, yeah. It’s hardest to play those songs for the first time for other people. You want people to love them because they are close to your heart. I’ve found that the things that make them difficult in the beginning are what makes them easier as times goes on. Every night you’re playing them onstage you have a place to go in your mind. Like “Hold My Hand” [a duet with Dwight Yoakam], I take myself to the same place — a restaurant in Nashville — every night when I play that. The story didn’t happen to me, but in my mind it takes place there.
“‘Dear Insecurity” is a great example. Nearly every line of that is about my insecurities. It’s hard to play a song like that in the beginning for people because you’re afraid they won’t like it. But once they do like it then it’s like, OK, now I know where to go every night emotionally to make it feel new.
Q. Do you have anything special in the works for the shows on this tour?
A. I’m lucky that I have fans that I call “repeat offenders” who come to multiple shows. I want to keep it exciting for them. Right now I’m wondering if there is a great cover song that we can do. We haven’t landed on anything yet, but I think I want to do a pop song that I can do in my own way that would be surprising. Maybe something from my teenage years.
And we’re working on a whole new set with a lot of songs that we’ve never played live. There’s a song on [“Brandy Clark”] called “All Over Again” that is a big vocal moment, we’ll do that one. And then some songs from the other records that we haven’t done for a while like “Just Like Him” from “12 Stories.”