Big Day in a Small Town

Big Day in a Small Town

by Brandy Clark
Big Day in a Small Town

Big Day in a Small Town

by Brandy Clark

CD

$12.99 
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Overview

Brandy Clark's 2013 debut 12 Stories was very much a songwriter's record: clean, simple, and spare, its arrangements never distracting from the writing. Big Day in a Small Town, released three years later as Clark's first major-label album, is its opposite: a collection of 11 songs buffed and polished with the intention of bringing her music to the widest possible audience. The tight drum loops of "Girl Next Door," the album's first single, signals the biggest aesthetic shift from the front porch picking of 12 Stories, but Clark hasn't abandoned her flair for intimate character sketches or storytelling. "Homecoming Queen" and "Three Kids No Husband" could've easily fit on the debut, but Jay Joyce -- the producer who helmed Eric Church's muscular modern-day outlaw Mr. Misunderstood, and also the Brothers Osborne's Pawn Shop, an album much closer in sound to Big Day in a Small Town than Church's -- gives them subtly textured arrangements, then surrounds these miniatures with bolder sounds. "Broke" plays with modern R&B rhythms that counter its white trash jokes, "Soap Opera" plays its gospel overtones as pop, and the riotous dis of "Daughter" is the only time Clark serves a straight-down-the-middle country song. Big Day in a Small Town slides from sound to sound with ease because Clark's anchor remains her finely rendered intimacy, a skill put into sharp relief by the heartbreak of the album closers "Drinkin' Smokin' Cheatin'" and "Since You've Gone to Heaven." The brighter, funnier songs and the nicely etched smooth ballads "Love Can Go to Hell" and "You Can Come Over" serve as gateways to this Clark signature, and if Big Day in a Small Town occasionally feels like nothing more than a collection of great songs that don't quite gel into a larger picture, that's a minor complaint: songs rarely come much better than these. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date: 06/10/2016
Label: East West / Rhino / Warner Bros.
UPC: 0093624922254
Rank: 58106

Tracks

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

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Brandy Clark   Primary Artist,Guitar (Acoustic),Vocals (Background),Vocals
Kacey Musgraves   Vocals,Vocals (Background)
Keith Gattis   Guitar
Pat McGrath   Guitar (Resonator)
Dave Roe   Bass
Shane McAnally   Vocals (Background)
Jason Hall   Vocals (Background)
Rob McNelly   Guitar
Jay Joyce   Banjo,Organ,Guitar,Vocals (Background)
Fred Eltringham   Drums
Forest Whitehead   Guitar,Vocals (Background)
John Deadrick   Keyboards
Morgane Stapleton   Vocals (Background)
Forrest Whitehead   Vocals (Background)
Forest Glen Whitehead   Guitar,Vocals (Background)
Josh Osborne   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Melissa Spillman   Production Assistant,Producer
Brandy Clark   Composer
Stephen Walker   Design,Art Direction,Illustrations
Mark D. Sanders   Composer
Jeremy Spillman   Composer
Chris Johnson   Photography
Pamela Littky   Portrait Photography
Luke Laird   Composer
Jesse Jo Dillon   Composer
Shane McAnally   Composer
Jason Hall   Mixing,Engineer,Recording
Mark Narmore   Composer
Scott Stepakoff   Composer
Bryan Simpson   Composer
Dan McCarroll   A&R
Jay Joyce   Mixing,Engineer,Producer,Recording
Lori McKenna   Composer
Josh Osborne   Composer
Jessie Dillon   Composer
Cate Wright   A&R
Paul Cossette   Assistant Engineer
Caleb VanBuskirk   Assistant Engineer
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