Mary Bragg, a lovely woman from Georgia that crafts beautiful songs from her home base in Nashville, was another one of those serendipitous Folk Alliance finds discovered in the wee small hours of a Conference private showcase. When I caught a show she did in Kansas City as part of the “First Friday” events hosted at the Folk Alliance HQ last August, I knew I wanted to have a sit down with her for this Podcast. We had that opportunity in New Orleans on an afternoon when we were both running on empty but still managed to have an easy going, wide ranging conversation that covered topics like sound engineering, publishing, performing arts organizations, record deals, distribution, “flying in” tracks, and oh yes…songwriting, the art of the song, and how living in Nashville has taught her how important it is to “lean in” and own the ability to translate emotion and humanity into a song. As we agreed, if the song and performance isn’t stellar, it doesn’t really matter that much whether you have the so-called best hardware and software.
“Writing is the most vulnerable state that I’m ever in,” says Mary Bragg. “But there can be a real beauty in that vulnerability when you know you’ve written the strongest thing that you can, when you’ve paired a killer melody with a meaningful lyric that says exactly what you wanted to say.”
And that is why I love supporting songcrafters like Mary Bragg. What she writes is meaningful for me and verbalizes thoughts and feelings I have myself. You are on the Right Track Mary Bragg...stay there…please… and thank you!
