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LAUREN BRADDOCK's self-titled debut album is a versatile
collection of songs that draws on influences from 60's/70's
pop to alternative to country.
The 15-song CD, produced by Grammy-winning songwriter and
critically-acclaimed recording artist Don Henry, touches on
issues ranging from the environment ("Don't Turn Away")
to animal kindness and world peace ("If I Was Your Girl")
while exploring darker issues such as childhood angst ("A
Walk Down Sesame Street"), infidelity ("Lost Dawg"),
and murder ("Alibi Lounge") -- often in a tongue-in-cheek
manner.
It is kind of a "hey...remember this?" to that
generation who grew up on the Brady Bunch, just missed the
Beatles phenomenon but LOVED them anyway and for the girls
who romanticized what it must have been like to be the love
interest of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton ("Let
Me Be Your Layla") but came of age during an un-free
love era ("Ignorance Is Bliss").
Lauren is the product of America's three major creative centers,
having spent nearly all of her life in Los Angeles, New York
and Nashville. From L.A. comes the cultural awareness so essential
to today's pop music. New York gave her the street wise rough
edges -- the tough 'n tender oxymoron that makes Manhattanites
so fascinating and complex. And from Nashville comes the song
craftsmanship that refuses to let her get away with a musical
or lyrical phrase that's less than what her taste demands.
Born and raised in Nashville, Lauren is the only child of
immortal country songwriter Bobby Braddock, famed for meaty
country hits like "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," "Time Marches
On," "I Wanna Talk About Me," and "He
Stopped Loving Her Today" (voted "All Time Favorite
Country Song" in a BBC England poll and "Country
Song of The Century" in R&R.) Bobby exposed Lauren
to all sorts of music from Hank Williams to the Beatles, and
never panicked when his daughter took adolescent journeys
into the world of punk rock and other extra-Nashville music
forms.
Her dream in high-school was to go to New York to be an actress.
So she went north and studied at the American Musical and
Dramatic Academy and surprise, while she was in New York she
started writing songs. After drama school she headed out to
L.A. where she secured film and television roles. "But
while I was chasing a movie career by day," she recalls,
"at night I was playing coffee houses with a band."
She also did some early demos out there with Jeff Buckley
and rock engineer Michael Clouse. One day one of her old buddies,
Don Henry, heard those demos and vowed that someday he would
produce an album on her.
When a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Tree brought Lauren
back to Nashville, she and Don got busy writing and recording.
Don, who collaborated with Lauren on 10 of the CD's 15 songs,
says, "Writing with Lauren is so easy and we always get
something really good and fascinating, and in the studio she
is wonderful and thoroughly unique."
Along with Don, who sings or plays something on every song,
many special guests performed on the tracks including pop-rockers
Bill Lloyd and Will Kimbrough on guitar, pedal steel player
Dan Dugmore, harmonica guru "Jellyroll" Johnson,
Hall of Fame songwriter Bobby Braddock (Lauren's dad) on keyboards,
and Blake Shelton (whose debut gold album contains a L. Braddock/D.
Henry song), Deborah Allen and Matraca Berg on background
vocals.
© 2002 behavey music
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