The Don't Rock The Inbox Proust-ish Questionnaire: Mary Bragg

Mary Bragg is a special kind of writer. If you've been kicking around Nashville for long enough like I have, you probably know that: there's an empathy in her work, a directness in the storytelling that instantly shoots you into place. Just listen to the opening of "The Game," from her new album, Secrets to Strangers, out Friday on Single Lock Records (it was produced by produced By John Paul White And Ben Tanner and recorded at the legendary FAME Studios In Muscle Shoals). Written about the heartbreaking experience of her wife's family not accepting their marriage or love, it begins by throwing you right into the moment. "She told me, 'I need you to know you'll probably never meet my family,'" Bragg sings, going on to explain that the kind of game she's singing about is one you play to keep the peace and the comfort of others while muting the truest parts of yourself. Songs like that are all over Secrets To Strangers, but by the time the record is done, you feel a lot more like friends.

To celebrate the album release, we asked Mary to answer our DRTI questionnaire, which is rich with her wise words, country favorites, and a dream location pretty similar to mine (maybe we'll end up there some day, Mary).

1. What country album is your idea of perfect happiness?

Patty Griffin, Living with Ghosts, in part because it marked the beginning of my education on things outside of top 40 radio.

2. What’s your greatest fear about your career?

That I will get in my own way, worrying too much about this or that, forgetting that the music is actually not about me at all.

3. What is the trait you most deplore in other artists?

Inauthenticity masked as authenticity.

4. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Perfectionism.

5. Which living country artist do you most admire?

Lucinda Williams.

6. What is your greatest extravagance on tour?

Currently, a stunning MCM airbnb for two days outside Jackson, MS, that is outside my budget. I make up for it by occasionally roughing it on friends' "guest beds."

7. What is the most overrated virtue in the country music world?

Filler (don't miss Stephanie Lambring's song of the same name).

8. Which of your past aesthetic choices do you dislike most?

The barrel curl.

9. Which country artist, living or dead, do you most despise? 

Anybody that capitalizes on misogyny, racism, bigotry, or indifference.

10. Which words or phrases do you most overuse in your songwriting? 

It's a device, but I ask a lot of questions. When a lyric is sounding too sure of itself, turning it into a question usually helps. 

11. When and where were you happiest?

Two years ago on the dance floor at my wedding - in my back yard - just after I married my wife.

12. Which talent would you most like to have, other than music?

Painting/drawing. I've always wanted to be a visual artist, but I do not have the eye for it (yet).

13. If you could change one thing about your career so far, what would it be?

It'd be nice to go back in time and learn how to write songs a little earlier, but I'm pretty alright with the path I've taken.

14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Living an honest life.

15. If you were to die and come back as another country artist, living or dead, what would it be?

Townes Van Zandt, but sober.

16. Where would you most like to live if you didn’t have to be tied to one particular place for work (if you are)?

Riverside Drive, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

17. What is your most treasured musical possession?

My voice.

18. Which historical figure in country music would you most like to collaborate with?

Dan Wilson.

19. Who are your heroes in real life?

My parents, and my wife.

20. What is your greatest regret?

Being afraid in my writing for as long as I was. Woof.

21. What is one perfect country song, to you?

"The Dance." I'm a huge fan of Tony Arata's writing (and he's from Georgia, like me).