Brandy Clark

Brandy Lynn Clark is an American country music singer-songwriter born on October 9, 1975. Her songs have been recorded by artists including Sheryl Crow, Miranda Lambert, The Band Perry, Reba McEntire, LeAnn Rimes, Billy Currington, Darius Rucker, and Kacey Musgraves. She released her debut studio album in 2013 and has since released four additional studio albums. Clark is a sixteen-time Grammy Award nominee and won a Country Music Association Award for Song of the Year. She also co-wrote the music and lyrics for the stage musical Shucked.

Clark was born in Morton, Washington. As a child in the 1980s, she was influenced by traditional country and country-pop artists played by her family, such as Barbara Mandrell, Ronnie Milsap, Merle Haggard, and Loretta Lynn, along with the Patsy Cline biopic Sweet Dreams. She began playing guitar at age nine, sang in school musicals, and wrote songs. After attending Central Washington University on a basketball scholarship, she earned an associate degree from Centralia College in 1997. She moved to Nashville in 1998 to study commercial music at Belmont University, where she joined a band with her mother and a friend. Following graduation, she took a job at Leadership Music, which led to a publishing deal.

As a Music Row songwriter, Clark's work focuses on realistic, observational stories about flawed characters, combining dark humor and wit. In 2011, she co-wrote "Mama's Broken Heart" with Shane McAnally and Kacey Musgraves for Miranda Lambert, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts in 2013. She achieved a No. 1 hit as a co-writer of The Band Perry's "Better Dig Two." In late 2012, Clark opened for Sheryl Crow and made her Grand Ole Opry debut alongside Marty Stuart. CMT named her one of its "Women of Country" in early 2013.

In December 2012, Clark digitally released a self-titled three-track EP featuring the single "Stripes." Her debut album, 12 Stories, was released in October 2013, produced by Dave Brainard and featuring Vince Gill on background vocals. It debuted at No. 28 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. In early 2014, she performed "Stripes" on The Late Show with David Letterman and opened on tour for Jennifer Nettles.

Clark released her second album, Big Day in a Small Town, in 2016, produced by Jay Joyce; its single "Girl Next Door" reached No. 39 on Country Airplay. Following her 2017 release Live from Los Angeles, she released Your Life Is a Record in 2020, which received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album. Her 2023 self-titled album, Brandy Clark, was nominated for five Grammys, and she won her first Grammy Award for Best Americana Performance for "Dear Insecurity," featuring Brandi Carlile.

In 2023, Clark and McAnally wrote the score for the musical Shucked, earning a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Original Score. Clark is openly a lesbian. In 2025, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Centralia College.