Cory Branan

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Cory Branan is an American singer-songwriter who was born in Southaven, Mississippi.

Biography

Cory Branan was surrounded by music from an early age. His father, Dallas Branan, was a jet mechanic and a local drummer. In his early 20's he began to explore the music of John Prine; a move which urged him to pick up a guitar and start writing songs. In 2000, the Memphis chapter of NARAS awarded Branan with the Phillips Award for Newcomer of the Year (he didn't even have a recording contract yet). Two years later, Branan made his label debut with Memphis's Madjack Records with the release of The Hell You Say to critical acclaim. Rolling Stone said about his songwriting, "There's a new breed of singer-songwriter... Ryan Adams, Conor Oberst, and now Cory Branan"[1]. This prompted Billboard to write, "He was recently featured in Rolling Stone's HotList, but don't hold that against him... songwriting prodigy gives John Prine a run for his money"[2]. In 2003 he appeared on both The Late Show with David Letterman and Last Call with Carson Daly.

In March 2006, after almost four years, Branan released his second album 12 Songs, again on Madjack Records. Despite the time to taken to release his second album, Blender noted that "12 Songs justifies the sabbatical"[3]. Also, Playboy declared, "A new voice emerges to run with the greats"[4].

Branan frequently plays shows across the U.S.. He usually performs as a solo act, but he occasionally plays with a backing band of friends he's touring with, such as Thrift Store Cowboys or New London's Quiet Life.

Branan will go into the studio in Winter/Spring 2009 to record his 3rd album for a 2009 release. He currently resides in Austin, Texas.

Discography

The Hell You Say (2002)
There Is No Dana - 7 Inch Vinyl EP (2003)
12 Songs (2006)
Live at the Hi-Dive - Limited Edition Cassette (2008)
TBA (Summer/Fall 2009)

Trivia

He has a long association with Lucero. He performed backing vocals on the song "Sweet Little Thing" on Tennessee (2002). He is also mentioned in the lyrics of the song "Tears Don't Matter Much" on That Much Further West (2003). He also appears briefly on the Brights Stars on Lonesome Nights DVD, and he provided the song "Watermark" for the closing credits.[5] Ben Nichols and Roy Berry from Lucero have also performed on Branan's records. Nichols sang on the song "Wayward and Down" from The Hell You Say and played bass on "Hell-bent and Heart-first" from 12 Songs. Berry played drums on "Hell-bent and Heart-first".[6]

There are two versions of The Hell You Say. The songs "Pale Moon on Paper Town," "One of Theirs," and "Green Street Lullaby (Dark Sad Song)"[7] were removed from the original version and the songs "Skateland South" and "American Dream" were added. The original version is known as the "Memphis" version and is extremely rare.

There are also two versions of There Is No Dana. There are many "normal" black 7 inch copies and there are also 100 white copies.

Umm... was the original title of 12 Songs.

There are many unreleased songs available on his MySpace.

There is a Cory Branan fan site, lastchancediner.com, which frequently features video and audio from shows and other performances as well as a message board and other information.

References

Cory Branan Home Page

External links

• Cory Branan Home Page
• Cory Branan MySpace
• Last Chance Diner