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Brandy Clark returns this weekend with “American Roots,” her first new single in more than three years — and, incidentally her first since the New York Times named her one of the 30 greatest living American songwriters
earlier this year. On the surface, it’s one of the country-est-sounding songs she’s ever done, and a patriotic anthem. But it’s patriotism for people who do not consider themselves nationalists. And it owes a big debt to one of the 30 greatest dead American songwriters, Woody Guthrie.
“I wrote that with Michael Pollack and Griff Clawson, when we had all just watched the movie ‘A Complete Unknown’ about Bob Dylan. I was struck by Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land Is Your Land,’ because I never think of a song like that as having been written by a real person, because we all grew up singing it in school. We were talking about how people don’t write those songs as much, and so we wanted to take a stab at it.”
Just as Guthrie’s song is a little edgier than it’s always been given credit for, Clark’s song gently upends some of the expectations that might arise nowadays for any song celebrating America. It is determinedly on the side of immigrants, in its subtle and non-confrontational way, from the opening lines — “Tell me about your family tree / If we start digging where’s it gonna lead” — to the climactic thoughts in the stirring bridge: “It’s the light that we’re all looking for / The light above that golden door / And when you step foot onto that shore / It’s no more mine than it is yours.”
Needless to say, Clark will not be invited to perform it at the next Turning Point convention, but the song could affect some hearts and minds as it comes up on a Spotify playlist in the family sedan, or wherever it might land as a conversation-starter.
“One of the people at my label, Tom Corson, said something that really stuck with me, because I was thinking of the song as somewhat polarizing. And he said, ‘It’s not polarizing. It’s patriotic.’ That really hit me, because that is the spirit with which it was birthed. But I think sometimes you can feel like if you’re on a different side from some people, that it’s polarizing. You know, the MAGA contingent doesn’t own the flag, and I can forget that sometimes.”
There was a personal origin point that figured into the writing. “My guitar player got stopped on the street in Ventura by ICE, and he didn’t have his driver’s license, so he had to come back to the bus to get his license because they thought he was an illegal. That sort of thing was going on, so that was definitely in our conversation and our consciousness.
“But the song to me is really about how I feel like we always have more in common than we have differences, even with somebody who we think we hate because they feel so differently from us. I still think when you get back to those basic questions in the song, like, ‘Tell me about your mom and dad, and their moms and dads, and their moms and dads…’ If we sit here and have a conversation, we start to talk and we find that we have so many commonalities and really want the same things. We want to feel loved and safe, and we’re lucky to live in a country where any dream can come true if you work at it hard enough. I hope it’ll always be that way, and that’s part of this song, too, to remind people that this is a great country and we have to fight to keep it that way.”
The song is the first to be released from Clark’s upcoming Shooter Jennings-produced album, “The Bird,” which was just announced Friday and will be out on Reprise Jan. 15, 2027. Clark took Variety through the formation and evolution of “American Roots,” and how it affected the course of the entire album, which fans and newcomers will find to be an excellent addition to one of the most flawless catalogs in modern Americana music.
“I hope it’s catchy enough musically that people are tapping their foot to it and listen to it long enough to get the message. That is my hope… I was getting ready to go out on this tour I did with Mary Chapin Carpenter, and my manager said, ‘You should play one new song in your set. Why don’t you try that ‘American Roots’ song the first night and see how that goes over?’ I did, and when I got to the bridge of ‘It’s no more mine than it is yours,’ people started clapping, and when I got to the end, everybody stood up. I thought, ‘Wow, you know, this song maybe is more powerful than I thought.’ And as that tour rolled on — I think we played 42 or 43 shows —more nights than not, that was what would happen, so I knew going in that that song needed to be a part of whatever record I did next.”
Musically, it changed the course of the forthcoming album, when she recorded it early on in the process with studio musicians, only to find that something about the song wasn’t working. “When I changed the arrangement in the studio, the song sort of fell flat. And so I knew, OK, there’s something that we’ve figured out here live that needs to translate in the studio. So I talked to Shooter Jennings about it and said, ‘I know this is not the norm, but I’d really like to bring my road band in to re-record this song.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, bring them in, and let’s just do two or three songs so it makes more sense budgetarily.’ So we did it just like we were doing it every night on the road. And then we were gonna record two more, but it went so well we recorded six more, and then ended up using my touring band to make the whole album. So this song has a lot to do with the way this record went down.”
Of course, one point made in the song is that nearly every American has immigrants in the family tree, however much some nationalists may like to imagine a United States that began with certain demographics in place. “I do think it’s really easy to just feel like, ‘Well, we’re here, and we’ve always been here,’ but somebody had to come here. You know, it’s like I always say about country music — it didn’t start with Garth Brooks.”
Clark is getting a lot of support from the west coast offices of Warner and/or Reprise — with the “and/or” there referring to how she changed from one sister label to another after her biggest champion at the Warner label, Jeff Sosnow, got promoted to president of Reprise, and she followed him after that change.
“I’ve worked with Jeff since ‘Your Life Is a Record.’ He’s been one of my A&R guys, him and Lenny Waronker. It’s exciting to me to see Jeff elevated, because I think he’s such a great record guy, and he’s been so liberal with me and whoever I’ve worked with on records, in letting us make art. I love that he’s getting that gig and that I get to go along with him.”
Working with Jennings for the first time on the album represents a plan deferred, since there had been talk of him co-producing her previous effort.
“When I made my record with Brandi (2023’s self-titled “Brandy Clark,” produced by Brandi Carlile), she had first approached me about it for her and Shooter to potentially do it together (as co-producers), and I think timing just didn’t work out. And I got a text from Shooter, probably 18 months ago ow, and he said, ‘Hey, I’d really love a second chance to work with you. I would co-produce with Brandi; I would produce; I would play on it, or I’ll just be a cheerleader, but I’d really love to work with you if you’ll give me another chance.’ And the first thing I said is, ‘Well, there’s no second chance, ’cause we haven’t had a first chance.’ I think he thought that maybe I was upset that he didn’t do i(the previous album) or something, but I never was; it just hadn’t worked out. Similarly, I had reached out to Brandi about all of us doing it together this time, but she was in the throes of her record (“Returning to Myself”) and getting that out there, so it just sort of fell into place to work with Shooter.
“And I’ve always loved the records that he’s been involved with. I’ve noticed records that I will listen to and think, ‘Oh, man, who, who is that playing piano?’ Often it’s Shooter. And I really learned why in working with him. I’ve never worked with somebody who’s better at just setting a vibe where people can feel comfortable. I really saw it with using my own band. In the past, I’ve had producers never want to do that, and he was like, ‘Yeah, bring them in.’ Then when they got in there, he never made them feel nervous. It was a low-pressure situation, and I think that made it so everybody could bring their best. I always feel like people have to feel comfortable enough to be able to make mistakes. Because to me, that’s where the magic happens, is in the mistakes.”
Variety will have Clark’s song-by-song take on “The Bird” when the full album is released in January.
