Brandy Clark

Brandy Clark is an American country music singer-songwriter and Broadway book writer, born on October 9, 1975, in Morton, Washington, a logging town of approximately 900 residents situated near Mount Rainier. Growing up in the 1980s, Clark was shaped by the country-pop and traditional country sounds her parents and grandmother favored, including artists such as Barbara Mandrell, Ronnie Milsap, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, and the Patsy Cline biopic Sweet Dreams. She began playing guitar at age nine and participated in school musicals while also writing original songs.

Clark pursued a basketball scholarship to Central Washington University before returning home and earning an associate degree from Centralia College in 1997. She subsequently enrolled in the music business program at Belmont University in Nashville, arriving in the city in 1998. There she resumed guitar study, joined a band with her mother and a friend, studied commercial music, and was selected to perform in the school's Best of the Best Showcase. After graduating, she took a position with Leadership Music, which led to a publishing deal and her career as a Music Row songwriter.

Among Clark's early songwriting successes was "Mama's Broken Heart," co-written with Shane McAnally and Kacey Musgraves, which appeared on Miranda Lambert's 2011 album Four the Record and was released as a single in January 2013, reaching number two on both the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts. She also co-wrote The Band Perry's "Better Dig Two" alongside McAnally and Trevor Rosen, a song that became the group's third number-one hit. Her compositions have been recorded by a wide range of artists, including Sheryl Crow, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, LeAnn Rimes, Billy Currington, Darius Rucker, and Kacey Musgraves.

Clark launched her recording career in October 2013 with the debut album 12 Stories, produced by Dave Brainard and featuring Vince Gill on background vocals. The record debuted at number 28 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. In January 2014, she performed the lead single "Stripes" on The Late Show with David Letterman. Her second studio album, Big Day in a Small Town, followed in June 2016, produced by Jay Joyce, with the lead single "Girl Next Door" reaching number 39 on the Country Airplay chart. Joyce also produced her 2020 album Your Life Is a Record, which received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album. In 2023, Clark released a self-titled album nominated for five Grammy Awards, including Best Americana Album; she won the Grammy for Best Americana Performance for "Dear Insecurity," featuring Brandi Carlile, marking her first Grammy win.

A sixteen-time Grammy Award nominee overall, Clark received a nomination for Best New Artist at the 2015 Grammy Awards. She also won the Country Music Association Award for Song of the Year as a co-writer on Kacey Musgraves's "Follow Your Arrow." In 2013, she received a CMA Song of the Year nomination for her co-writing credit on Lambert's "Mama's Broken Heart."

In 2023, Clark and frequent collaborator Shane McAnally wrote the book, music, and lyrics for the Broadway musical Shucked. The production earned Clark a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score. Centralia College honored Clark with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2025 in recognition of her country music career and her connection to the institution. Clark is openly a lesbian.