Meredith Brooks

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Meredith Ann Brooks (born June 12, 1958)^[1] is an American singer/songwriter and guitarist. She is best known for her 1997 hit song "Bitch", for which she was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Early life

Meredith Brooks was born in Oregon City, Oregon. Her parents divorced while she was still a child. She and her brother and sister grew up in Corvallis, Oregon and were raised by their mother. At age eleven, Brooks became fascinated with the guitar and she soon learned how to play it. Brooks excelled at academics and skipped several grades in high school, graduating at age 16 from Corvallis High School. In the Early 1980s, Brooks performed at a number of clubs in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and in Washington, where she was popular to a broad range of fans. She often performed at the Last Hurrah, and Eli's Hard Rock Cafe in Downtown Portland. She was Managed by Denny Herman of Pacific Talent, who was also her boyfriend. She recorded Meredith Brooks and The Angels of Mercy: Recorded Live at the Starry Night, a one-hour TV show. The video production was headed up by Mark de Leon Martinez, an established young music Video producer from Portland. She performed that Night as the opening act for Jack Charles. She then moved to Los Angeles to further her career in music. At that time, she recorded the songs that later appeared on See It Through My Eyes. In the later 1980s and early 1990s, she was a member of The Graces, who recorded one album, Perfect View, in 1989.

Success with "Bitch"

In 1995, Brooks landed a major label contract with Capitol Records. Her first hit single, "Bitch", garnered her nominations for the 1998 Grammy Awards for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song. The song was Brooks' only major hit on the charts. Her album Blurring the Edges achieved platinum sales and peaked at 22 on the Billboard 200 and 5 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was produced by David Ricketts, formerly of David and David (with David Baerwald). Ricketts also played keyboards, among other instruments, on the album. Brooks toured in the US and Europe in 1997 and 1998 to support the album. In 1998 she divorced her husband, Russell Jackson, after seven years of marriage.

Brooks recorded her second major album Deconstruction in 1999. It was a stylistic and thematic shift away from Blurring the Edges. She only toured in Europe and the album sold poorly. She originally wrote the song "Sin City", which appears on this album, for the movie Snake Eyes, directed by her friend Brian De Palma. She toured with Sarah McLachlan's successful Lilith Fair.

In 2002, Brooks worked on her third solo album Bad Bad One on Gold Circle Records, an independent label. Immediately after releasing the album, the label folded and prevented the record from getting promoted or achieving significant sales. Track 11 - 'Shine' - was released as the lead single. The label's demise also interrupted her tour with Melissa Etheridge that summer, causing her and the band to return early to Los Angeles. Also in 2002, Brooks produced Jennifer Love Hewitt's album, BareNaked, and appeared on the VH1 Divas Las Vegas program as a guest guitar soloist with Celine Dion and Anastacia.

Life today

In 2003, Brooks remarried and the next year gave birth to her son, Troy. She also signed a new record deal with the SLG Records label and released the material of Bad Bad One as Shine. Television psychologist Dr. Phil chose the song "Shine" as the theme for his show.^[2] Most recently, Brooks has completed a new children's album titled If I Could Be... and continuing to develop new artists as a producer and songwriter. In particular, she is producing Sony Music Entertainment artist Becca, a pop/rock singer/songwriter from Portland, Oregon.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

• Meredith Brooks Official Site
• Meredith Brooks Top 40 Mainstream Page