Mary Bragg - Secrets To Strangers (Vinyl)

Every great song is essentially a secret told to a stranger. And when the truth is clear, the stranger recognizes themselves in it. Mary Bragg describes the title Secrets to Strangers as a ""zoomed-out representation"" of her latest release, a collection of deeply personal stories offered to the outside world. ""All these spaces are invitations to share a truth for the sake of connecting your own experience to another human being's,"" Bragg says.Across twelve songs, she approaches memory, longing, and self-acceptance with grace and lyrical finesse. Recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, a legendary room that captured landmark records by Aretha Franklin, Etta James, and countless others, one gets the sense, as more of Bragg's songs go to tape, that what is taking place will be a major career breakthrough. The hooky ""Kid Flamingo,"" the bossa-tinged ""I Like It Here,"" a poetic embrace of life's messiness: all come to life with co-producers Ben Tanner and John Paul White, stretching Americana to include indie rock, pop, early '80s radio vibes, and southern soul. ""It's geographically neutral,"" Bragg says. ""I like that it's not trying to satisfy the bounds of one genre."" A dream team of players including Chad Gamble (Jason Isbell's 400 Unit), bassist Zac Cockrell (Alabama Shakes), and guitarist/keyboardist Jay Gonzalez (Drive-By Truckers) helped build the album alongside collaborators Maia Sharp, Mindy Smith, and John Paul White.Bragg has quietly become one of Americana's most admired artists. NPR called her breakout Lucky Strike ""one of the year's best,"" and Rolling Stone praised Violets as Camouflage for it's ""mix of classic country twang and gentle chamber-pop."" A Berklee-trained producer herself, she handed off production duties this time, wanting to ""expand what the songs could become in a way that was newly open to possibility.""The result is an album about giving yourself permission to enter a day without all the answers. ""I hope that people who hear the record will immediately feel called to honor their own voices,"" Bragg says, ""to hear their own joy and pain, and say, 'Yeah, that's me too.'""