About

“Now I want to make something that is absolutely, without a doubt, me. And I think I do know exactly what I want to sound like.”

These words from Matraca Berg a few years ago suggested that something special was on the horizon. Her fans have been waiting to hear something new from this silken-voiced poet and singer and the wait is nearly over. Matraca is in the studio working to create her album. The process is exciting and frightening, as she’s never exposed her artistic self quite so fully.

Matraca Berg had her first No. 1 record as a songwriter at age 18. That, in turn, has qualified her to become one of the youngest Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame nominees in history: To be eligible, a writer must have first achieved prominence at least 25 years ago. She was inducted in October.

That first hit was “Faking Love,” as sung by T.G. Sheppard and Karen Brooks. In the years since, Berg’s songs have practically become the soundtrack of contemporary Nashville. Reba McEntire’s “The Last One to Know” (1987), Patty Loveless’ “I’m That Kind of Girl”(1991), Trisha Yearwood’s “Wrong Side of Memphis” (1992), Martina McBride’s “Wild Angels “(1996), the Dixie Chicks’ “If I Fall You’re Going Down With Me” (2001) and more than 50 other recordings of her songs have made her one of the most recorded composers in Music City.

Matraca’s songs have been sung by Randy Travis, Faith Hill, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Linda Ronstadt, Tanya Tucker, Pam Tillis, Keith Urban, Dusty Springfield, Clint Black, Loretta Lynn and dozens of others. Her co-written “Strawberry Wine,” as performed by Deana Carter, was named the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year in 1997. As if to top it all off, Gretchen Wilson’s recording of Matraca’s and Jim Collins’ “I Don’t Feel Like Loving You Today” received a 2007 Grammy nomination for Best Country Song.

In addition, the songwriter issued three CDs in 1990-97, plus a 1999 compilation, that have brought her wide acclaim as a performer. Joined by Gretchen Peters and Suzy Bogguss, Matraca has enjoyed sold-out shows in New York City, London and across the U.K. as part of Wine, Women & Song. The tour will again head to the U.K. in May 2009.

Matraca and fellow Nashville songwriter Marshall Chapman provided the songs for the 2000 theatrical production Good Ol’ Girls, which continues to be staged by regional repertory companies. As a backup vocalist she has recorded with Kris Kristofferson, Neil Young and many others. She appeared in the 1987 motion picture Made In Heaven and on the soundtrack of 1993’s The Thing Called Love. And in 2004, she added “producer” to her list of accomplishments by guiding the debut disc of Sony newcomer Christy Sutherland.

“Making records has done more for my career than anything, I think,” says Matraca. “It raised my profile as a writer like nothing else. It was because of my records that Trisha and Martina and Faith and everyone recorded my songs. But none of my records was exactly like I wanted them to be.”

The time has come for Matraca Berg to make the record she’s always wanted to make. That’s a good thing for her, a good thing for her fans, and a good thing for music.

Discography

Cut List

* singles and b-sides

Awards/Accomplishments

What Others Are Saying

"Very, very clever and quick with words...She makes a statement about the way a lot of women feel today."
- Patty Loveless

"This top Nashville composer has the ideal voice to inhabit her best songs. Berg is possessed by her music: she sings in tongues," while Entertainment Weekly raved, "Matraca Berg nearly stole the CMA Awards with her performance of 'Back When We Were Beautiful,' part of this Eudora Welty-ish song cycle of life in the small-town South. A soulful, sensuous pastiche of human loneliness."
- TIME

"If I was a really great songwriter, I would want to be Matraca Berg. I think she writes songs from such an incredibly unique perspective, and when I hear her songs, even the songs that I haven't recorded, even the songs that noone has recorded, they move me, because she writes from the heart."
- Trisha Yearwood

"She's got a profound understanding of women, and she taps into their lives and their emotions, even when she's writing about a situation that she hasn't experienced herself. She hits the subject so dead-on that we feel like that we're not going through things alone. I think that is an incredible comfort to women to know that we're not the only one to have these overwhelming emotions and situations that seem like they're out of our control."
- Suzy Bogguss

"She is just, oh God, poetry in motion. First of all, she's gorgeous. She's disarming. Then when you put brains and talent and all that behind it...She's one of my favorite people. I love her."
- Deana Carter

"As for ballads, like the title track, leave it to Matraca Berg and whomever she happens to be writing with -- in this case the wonderful Ronnie Samoset -- to deliver the consummate broken yet determined break-up song every time. In Loveless' voice, this song is an issue of profound truth for the protagonist; she is the one waiting up for the lies and excuses."
- Thom Jurek, All Music Guide, regarding the Berg-Samoset composition,
"On Your Way Home"

"Anything of Matraca's reminds me of great writing. I love her stories — Good Ole Girl and Back When We Were Beautiful still bring tears to my eyes. And when I need inspiration, I crank Along for the Ride."
- Carolyn Dawn Johnson

"Joe Galante at RCA was the moving force behind this reissue of Berg's splendid RCA debut album "Lying to the Moon," recorded in 1990. Berg has added several new tunes to the original tracks, resulting in a sort of hybrid re-release that recalls old favorites while introducing some outstanding new material. Berg is one of the premier tunesmiths in Nashville, having authored hits for the likes of Deana Carter, Reba McEntire, Pam Tillis, and Suzy Bogguss. Berg is, however, quite capable of delivering her own material in a convincing fashion. As the listener will hear, these aren't just cool tunes; they're cool tunes performed by a pretty cool singer. Special moments include the elemental blues of "I Got It Bad," the melancholy, mountain soul of "Appalachian Rain," the marvelous rollercoaster metaphor of "Along for the Ride," the witty, easy-going groove of "Eat at Joe's," and the sexual semantics of "Back in the Saddle." This is a welcome reincarnation of an excellent album from an artist whose level of talent is way beyond her level of recognition.
- Philip Van Vleck, All Music Guide