country routes news: Bailey Bryan celebrates release of debut EP SO FAR

Tuesday, 25 April 2017

Bailey Bryan celebrates release of debut EP SO FAR

Photos: Bailey Bryan Celebrates Release Of Debut EP SO FAR

Nashville, TN - April 19, 2017 - "Artist you need to know" (Rolling Stone) Bailey Bryan celebrated the release of her debut release SO FAR (April 18) at Saint Anejo in Nashville.

Bryan's team and friends gathered for an acoustic set as she performed all five songs from her debut EP, which was released last Friday, April 14.

Bailey Bryan performs at her EP Release Party at Saint Anejo in Nashville. April 28

Top L to R: Tom Lord (Red Light Management), Coran Capshaw (Red Light Management), Peter Strickland (Warner), Dennis Matkosky (Producer), Bailey Bryan, Ronli Tzour (300 Entertainment), Bill Burrs (300 Entertainment), Tom Martens (Warner), Callie Cunningham (Red Light Management) Bottom L to R: Lisa Ray (Warner Music Nashville), Becki DeVries (Kompass), Chelsea Dankner (300 Entertainment), Cris Lacy (Warner), Leslie Roberts (BMI)

Since "next big thing" (Perez Hilton) Bailey Bryan first arrived on the scene with her debut single "Own It," critics have prepared the world to "fall in love" (People) with the singer/songwriter. Touted by Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly as an "artist you need to know," Bryan is "ready to show the world her confident side" (Taste Of Country) with her EP SO FAR (300 Entertainment/Warner Music Nashville) that "runs the emotional gamut" (Billboard), available digitally now. Bryan is continuing to introduce her new music to live audiences across the country, currently on tour with Kane Brown after wrapping up a run earlier this year with Dan + Shay.

On May 6, Bryan will take to the world-famous Grand Ole Opry stage to make her Opry debut. She has also been added to the MainStage lineup for several festivals this spring and summer, including Stagecoach (April 28) and Watershed (June 28). For additional information and a full list of tour dates, visit www.baileybryan.com

Bailey Bryan, a Country Upstart Who’s Already Looking Beyond

The first sound you hear on Bailey Bryan’s debut country EP is a D.J. scratching a record, or a digital simulation thereof. The plangent, folksy guitars are right behind, of course, but they’ve been served a warning: No longer do they need to be front and center for a young country singer looking to make a mark.

Indeed, Ms. Bryan, who is 19 and hails from Sequim, Wash., is on a mission to rebuild country stardom with parts gathered far and wide: Miley Cyrus’s shimmery turn as Hannah Montana and her pre-twerk flirtation with country-pop; country singers with mild soul inclinations like Sara Evans and Lauren Alaina; pop singers like Alessia Cara and Halsey who serve as counter-narratives to pop’s perky instincts.

And of course, Taylor Swift, whom Ms. Bryan has studied in depth, from that singer’s early-career fixation on cool girls and the girls they exclude, and also the way she alternates between breathlessly racing through syllables and then pulling back to hit a few of them with power.

On each song on Ms. Bryan’s excellent, infectious debut EP, “So Far,” she refracts country music through a slightly different prism. “Own It,” the opener, is cheeky teen-pop — it could be the theme song for a quirky Disney Channel heroine: “I break things, like hearts and iPhones,” she sings.

As if to shore up her country bona fides, that’s immediately followed by “Hard Drive Home,” a lovely, grand smear of sadness that features some of Ms. Bryan’s most powerful singing. After that is “Scars,” which perhaps borrows a touch too much from Ms. Cara (including a song title similar to one of her hits) but is filled with rich songwriting — “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours/let’s scatter our ashes here on the floor” — and shout-outs to “Marilyn, Cobain and James Dean.”

The closest aesthetic peer Ms. Bryan has in contemporary country is probably Sam Hunt, who offers advanced-placement seminars in reconfiguring the genre’s DNA. Ms. Bryan is a less versatile singer (and hasn’t started rapping, at least not yet), but her instincts for finding underexplored musical pockets within country is impressive. She has a writing credit on each song on this EP, as does Dennis Matkosky, who produced it.

A symbol of the effectiveness of Ms. Bryan’s choices is that, even in her most country-friendly moments, Nashville outsiderdom is embedded into her work, right down to the lyrics on “Used To,” a song about leaving the womb for a shot at adulthood. “Don’t feel so alone ’til you’re there on the phone and your mama says ‘I miss you,’/that’s when it hits you,” she sings. The song moves with a slow confidence, and just the faintest hint of blues guitar, underscoring Ms. Bryan’s sweet-voiced melancholy. “I’m still getting used to the way it rains in Tennessee,” she sings. But at this rate, Nashville is just a way station — she won’t be there for long.