She co-wrote the Band Perry’s gothic melodrama “Better Dig Two,” in which the singer promises to love her partner till death do us part, then repeats the pledge with such escalating vehemence that the vow starts to sound like a threat. And no one illustrates that better than Clark, who writes songs as well as anyone.Ĭlark, who’s forty-four, and grew up in the tiny lumber town of Morton, Washington, built her reputation by writing songs for other artists-often, in Nashville’s collaborative way, with Shane McAnally, and usually a third writer, too. But country music, both as a genre and as a radio format, exists with a maddening contradiction: for nearly a decade now, women have been practically excluded from mainstream-country-radio playlists, even as the lion’s share of the best country music is increasingly written and performed by women.

All these women-and a dozen more besides-have released singles over the past several years that, in a less restrictive radio environment, might have found, at the least, a chance to compete for airplay.

But a lot of people, including a lot of country fans, have never heard of her, for the same reason that a lot of people have never heard of Cam, Mickey Guyton, Nikki Lane, Yola, Ashley McBryde, Ashley Monroe, Kellie Pickler, Kelsey Waldon, and others. Brandy Clark is something of a critical darling her first two albums generated five Grammy nominations. Except that, over the past decade, country radio has mostly exiled songs with ambivalent or outright unhappy endings-especially when a woman’s voice is singing them.Īccording to the musicologist Jada Watson, in 2018, the ratio of men’s records to women’s that were played on country radio was nearly ten to one. But her previous album should have been a smash, too: “Big Day in a Small Town,” from 2016, is terrific, and its lead single, “ Girl Next Door,” couldn’t have been more perfect for radio, with hooks and beats and stacked rhymes. With any luck or justice, the lonely and lustrous country-pop of “Your Life Is a Record” will earn her many more. Clark has been winning new fans this way for years, one catchy, finely chiselled song at a time. She played the rowdy revenge fantasy “Long Walk,” which had the crowd laughing at its wicked punch lines, and “ Who You Thought I Was,” a song that turns unexpectedly from childhood dreams to adult regrets, and which prompted people to lean forward to hear every word. The rest of the Wichita set was largely devoted to songs from her new album, “Your Life Is a Record,” which is out this week. “ Get High” is from Clark’s début album, “12 Stories,” which was released in 2013. “Bored with her husband, tired of the same old list of things to do.” To unwind at the end of another tedious day, this woman sits down and “rolls herself a fat one.” And then on to the chorus: “Sometimes the only way to get by is to get high.” Perhaps someone at the show was offended, but mostly I saw knowing nods and, as the song went on, more and more people singing along. “She hates her job, loves her kids,” Clark sang. Then she launched into a story song about a woman with whom most of those present seemed to be on quite familiar terms. “I hope you’re not offended easily,” Clark said, smiling. Three songs into a set last month in Wichita, Kansas, the country singer-songwriter Brandy Clark issued a neighborly warning to the people in the audience, most of whom had come to see the night’s headliner, Tanya Tucker, and may have heard Clark’s name for the first time just a few moments before, when she was introduced over the loudspeaker. Brandy Clark’s songs capture the routine indignities of life in America among the white working class.

Roll with it country song