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Getting to Know Brandy Clark

October 20, 2013 Kevin John Coyne 4

Brandy ClarkAs a general rule, you can scan the credits of any new country album and assume that if Brandy Clark is a writer on one of the songs, it’s the best song on the album. As Clark readies the release of 12 Stories, her debut album as an artist, it’s a great time for fans of that remarkable set to get caught up on Clark’s work to date.

Believe the hype. Clark really is as good as everyone is saying she is. Possibly even better, as these twenty tracks suggest. Scroll down to the bottom, and you can listen to snippets from all of them as you read along.

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2010 ACM Nominations

March 2, 2010 Dan Milliken 38

You know the drill. For each of the categories, we’ll look at who’s broken in since last year, who’s been excused, and then make a totally judgy statement about what it all means.

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Bomshel, “19 and Crazy”

September 20, 2009 Kevin John Coyne 17

bomshelAt the intersection of Taylor Swift’s present-tense teenage angst and Kenny Chesney’s trademark “those were the good old days” rememberings of carefree youth, you’ll find the new Bomshel single.

They’re old enough to be looking back on being 19 and crazy, but aren’t quite so old that those days seem completely idyllic. There’s a refreshing perspective here that those days were just stepping stones toward becoming who they are today. While they seem to say that they’d love to be 19 and crazy forever, the fact that they’re already figuring out how to explain that tattoo to their future children suggests that they’re not quite so eager to turn back the hands of time.

The song has an incessant driving beat that straddles the fence between urgency and just plain annoyingly fast. Also, like just about all the B-list singles out there these days, there’s far too much going on in the production. It would be nice to see more producers in Nashville show their confidence in the artist and the song by easing down on the clutter, but you’d have to be 19 and crazy to think that has a chance of happening.

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Bomshel, “Fight Like A Girl”

February 16, 2009 Leeann Ward 26

BomShel’s latest attempt to hit the radio airwaves is a three-act song that takes us through the hardships of a woman who is picked on as a girl, continuously hits the glass ceiling no matter