Resiliency is rewarded in the hustle of country songwriting -- just ask Brandy Clark. The best new artist nominee at the 2015 Grammys was “new” in Nashville back in 1998, when the rural Washington native first moved to town with dreams of building a life in country music. However, it wasn’t until about 2009 that she started landing songs on albums; there was a five-year struggle to secure a publishing deal and no shortage of odd jobs (“I drove for a company called Kid Taxi that picked kids up from school.”)
Behind her whip-smart sophomore album Big Day in a Small Town, Clark is up for two more Grammys at this weekend’s ceremony. But don’t think Clark's gotten used to this kind of attention each February: “I’ve never expected it and that’s probably part of why it's happened.”
That’s not false modesty -- it’s honest insight. Clark has spent almost two decades learning how sustained success actually happens, how playing the long game is playing the winning game. She leant her creative wisdom to the latest episode of the Pop Shop Podcast’s Headliner Interview, Billboard's weekly long-form talk with a compelling, inspirational voice in the world of music, hosted by staff writer Chris Payne.