Earlier this month, singer/songwriter Rachel Brooke took to social media to announce that she had been on “somewhat of a writing spree” for a couple of years and was preparing to release three new albums. The first of the three, Rachel Brooke Sings Sad Songs, a collection of original songs and covers for the sorrowfully inclined will hit streaming platforms this spring.
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Ahead of the album’s release, Brooke sat down with American Songwriter to talk about the writing process, what she hopes people will get from the record and more.
What Rachel Brooke Hopes to Achieve with the Album
Rachel Brooke Sings Sad Songs is something of a return to form for the singer/songwriter. Longtime fans who fell in love with her early solo acoustic work and want more of that will find it on the new release. At the same time, she isn’t looking to make huge waves in the industry with the album. Instead, she hopes others will resonate with what she has to say.
“I just want people to relate to it,” Brooke said of the album. “This record is an honest side of myself. All I want is for people to relate to that. If people can relate to your art, that’s success to me. My hope is that people can feel the emotion in the songs and connect to it,” she added.
Building the Album
Rachel Brooke Sings Sad Songs is a collection that spans years. It contains mostly original songs with a few covers to round out the tracklist.
“The last couple of years, I’ve been writing a lot. Mostly, I’ve been writing for these two records that are more fully produced and with a band but I haven’t been limiting myself to a certain style,” Brooke explained. “So, the songs that are on this record come from a bunch of different areas. There’s songs that I wrote in the last year or so, there’s songs that I co-wrote with my husband, and there’s a song that a close friend of mine wrote that he never released but I’m putting it on this album because it’s a beautiful sad song. Then, there’s a couple of covers,” she said. “It’s an interesting record but it’s not unlike the stuff that I did long ago.”
Rachel Brooke Finds a Healthy Coping Mechanism in Songwriting
In her post announcing the album, Rachel Brooke mentioned that she was going through hard times and turned to songwriting to help pull her out of them. In a way, it worked.
“The bigger problem might not be fixed but it was a great way to get through it and maybe distract myself and find a healthy way to cope and understand myself which I think is the goal in life,” Brooke revealed. “I feel like if you’re suffering you have to try to understand why and what’s going on. If you can find good ways to understand that instead of some negative coping mechanism, you can find a way out or a way through,” she added. “So, I wouldn’t say I’m good now but I will say it helped me explore what’s going on a little bit more.”
Brooke also revealed that she has been working on the other two albums much longer than this one. However, she felt compelled to release Sad Songs first. “I’ve been working on these other songs in the studio for a year or so but this one came last. I did it almost like I needed to do it. It was like, ‘I need to just get away from the noise.’ It was just a really stressful time and I ended up getting this one done way quicker. I’m pretty happy that it’s first,” she explained.
Choosing the Covers for Rachel Brooke Sings Sad Songs
Rachel Brooke Sings Sad Songs contains three stellar covers—Nirvana’s “All Apologies” Hank Williams’ “Weary Blues from Waiting” and John Hartford’s “Gentle on My Mind.” During our conversation, she revealed how each of the tracks fits into the Sad Songs tracklist.
“‘Gentle on My Mind’ is very specific. The album is Rachel Brooke Sings Sad Songs and that was a song that my dad loved so much. My dad was a musician. He’s the one who taught me pretty much everything,” Brooke explained. “When we would play out, he would perform that song. I would look over at him and I’d see tears in his eyes and I knew he was thinking of somebody and it was moving to him,” she recalled. “When he died, part of that song was in his obituary because he loved that song. So, I sang that song as a sad song for him. It’s a very special song,” she added.
“I chose ‘All Apologies’ because the lyrics to that song are sad. I don’t know if most people would necessarily feel that about ‘All Apologies’ but, to me, it is,” Brooke said. “It’s all about being at fault and guilt. It’s a lot of the story of my life. I relate to Kurt Cobain a lot. I was young when he died but Nirvana was still very popular in my teenage years,” she added.
“Then, ‘Weary Blues from Waiting’ is one of the saddest Hank Williams songs in the world. I chose that one because I’ve been singing it live for years. It’s a beautiful song and it’s very, very sad and I enjoy singing it,” Brooke explained.
Rachel Brooke Sings Sad Songs Tracklist and Information
Rachel Brooke Sings Sad Songs will hit streaming platforms on March 28. While she doesn’t plan to share any singles from the collection ahead of its release, fans can pre-save the album today.
Tracklist
- “Lonely Old Bummer”
- “Little Lost Love”
- “I’m Doing Just Fine”
- “Like No Other”
- “Dying on Vacation”
- “You More”
- “Gentle on My Mind”
- “Good News”
- “Weary Blues from Waiting”
- “Suffering Love”
- “Bad Habit”
- “Currently the Fool”
- “All Apologies”
- “Silver Linings”
Featured Image via Rachel Brooke
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