Videos by American Songwriter
The Artist: Captivating Texas folk-singer Bronwynne Brent
The Album: Stardust, out today.
Sounds Like: Cat Power meets Melanie out on the Texas plains.
Fun Fact: Bronwynne’s sister is blues dynamo Eden Brent.
Songwriter Says: This album sort of happened by chance. I was driving down a country road near Dripping Springs, Texas and I heard the most beautiful song on the radio. I immediately pulled off the road and listened. The song was “Summer Romance,” sung by Rachel Flotard, a track off of Maggie Bjorklund’s album, Coming Home. The production, along with Rachel’s voice, moved me so much that I had to find out who produced it. It was Johnny Sangster. I contacted him and the rest is history. It was a chance listen, but I believe it was fate that led me to Seattle. Johnny even arranged for Rachel to sing harmony with me on “Marrying Kind!”
Most of the songs are about people I love, and some that I have lost. My hope is that the people who listen to my music will make their own interpretations and relate the songs with their own experiences.
I don’t know who my musical influences were for the album because I think that lies within the subconscious. I do know however, that I wanted something with a foreign flavor and with an early sixties vibe. I was watching a lot of old westerns, and I was listening to Townes Van Zandt, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vince Guaraldi around the time I wrote some of the songs.
“In The Mirror,” “Heart’s On Fire,” “Lay Me Down,” and “Don’t Tell Your Secrets to the Wind,” I tried to write something with a Spanish feel, and once I found a melody I liked, the words followed.
There were a couple of inspirations for “Another World.” One was Felix Baumgartner, the man who jumped 127,852 feet and broke the sound barrier, reaching 843.6 mph as he fell back down to Earth. The other inspiration was someone that l liked very much, someone with whom I had a strong chemical attraction, but his way life was very different from mine. I wondered if it was possible to find love with someone that comes from a completely different world. I found out that for me, it’s probably not possible, but nice to imagine.
“Don’t Tell Your Secrets to the Wind” was inspired by a quote I read from Kahlil Gibran: “If you reveal your secrets to the wind,
you should not blame the wind for
revealing them to the trees.”
I get really nervous when I record, my heart starts pounding, it’s harder to breathe. This makes it harder to sing like I want to. I tried to be calm and I drank lots of pineapple juice. I read on the Internet that it’s good for your voice. It’s now my studio drink of choice!
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