Album Notes

Like most good stories in South Georgia, Brandi Thornton’s story begins in the back seat of a Thunderbird on the way to Atlanta. “My older sister was competing in Miss Georgia Pre-Teen when she was 12 and I was 5. She was practicing her talent on the way. Like any annoying little sister, I started singing along. Then it got really quiet in the car,” Brandi explains. Now when she sings, people still get “really quiet,” but they don’t quite swerve off the road the way her father did on that day.

Brandi is the second of four daughters, born to a UPS driver and secretary. She has been singing as long as she can remember. She performed at every opportunity, including beauty pageants, touring with a 4-H performing arts group, church productions and talent shows. During junior high and high school, she spent her weekends playing festivals across the Southeast.

“We were weekend gypsies. Wherever there was an open mic or festival, we went,” says Brandi. “My parents helped me run after my dreams, but demanded that I maintain the normalcy of being a child and teenager. Sure, I might be singing at a club until midnight, but when 8:30 came, I was in Physics like it or not.”

She attended the University of Georgia, beginning as a pre-journalism major. A summer spent working in the corporate offices of BMG Entertainment in New York opened her eyes. There she saw the business side of "the business" firsthand and realized there is more to being a professional singer than singing. “I saw a contract negotiation and realized that the best thing this artist could do was get hit by a truck. The label was never going to make enough money to recoup and she probably would not live long enough to outearn her advances.” The next day, she called her advisor at UGA and changed her major from pre-journalism to business.

A two year stint in the theaters and theme parks of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, also made an impression on Brandi. “I learned a lot about showmanship. I began to see what it was like to perform the same show again and again. It may be the 300th time through for the entertainer, but for those people in the audience…it is the first.” She also made a promise to herself, “I was surrounded by people working day in and day out. Many of them were very talented, but it seemed that they were just waiting…waiting for someone to be in the right place at the right time and make the magic happen.” It was then that she says, “I was spurred into action. I realized that I may have to make the magic on my own and not rely on anyone or anything else.”

Working fulltime and recording on nights and weekends, Brandi received some real life experience balancing two careers. “When you are paying for studio time by the hour, the learning curve is pretty steep,” she adds. “I had to figure out who I was in the studio much more quickly than the 19 years I had spent defining who I was in live performance.”

In her first studio release, aptly titled New Place to Start , Brandi harnesses the spirit of a trailblazer determined to chart her own path and have a little fun along the journey. She takes a solo stroll across the patchwork of feelings, topics and emotions that define the young female experience. Approaching some situations with the wisdom of age and others with the naiveté of youth, she surprisingly found herself in every set of lyrics.

“The first few songs I chose were aimed at capturing the independence and self-reliance that has been bred into me. I wanted to impart a few anthems that told my story this far,” says Thornton.

Over more than a year of recording, Brandi is quick to note that the project diverged from her initial goals of a “girl power cd.” She states, “when I took a step back from the process, I had a certain amount of girl power, but there was something more. Then I realized the uniting theme in all of the songs that I had chosen was pretty simple. It was love. Maybe not that easy to identify black and white, gushy romantic love, but love all the same.”

Moreover, she found that each song was in part semi-autobiographical, “Where I was…where I needed to be…where I had been in a variety of relationships was laid out like a roadmap on the lyric sheets.” For Brandi, it was a startling revelation, but it served as an indication that she chose the right material for her freshman effort. “I figured if I could find myself in each song, other people could probably relate to them, too.”

Some of those relatable songs had been rattling around on Brandi’s songlist for several years. Others were found at just the right time five or six months into the project. Writers contributing to the project include Anthony Smith, Buffy Lawson, and Anthony DiPiero to name a few. Their unique works are made distinctly similar when delivered with Brandi’s discerning vocal, best described as equal parts raw talent and focused ambition.

In “running wide open” fast cuts like Only Woman Left and Real , Thornton delves into the search for self and self-value in a relationship. Lyrics that offer no apology, define the “Gospel According to Brandi.” Stating “if you’re lookin’ for a random get lucky, there’s a million and one other girls. What I need is a man who can love me like I’m the only woman left in the world.”

Not to be missed is the haunting ballad, "Color Love Blue," which paints a literal picture of the tumultuous rise and dwindling wane of a relationship that is meant to last for the long haul. This song is interpreted with depth and feeling that belies both age and experience.

Brandi may have even recorded the ultimate country song…more Johnny Paycheck than Shania Twain, "Black Crow" is a universal story…one that anyone from Folkston, GA can imagine. Scandalous love, deceit, betrayal, denial and a great big old train wreck!”

The subject matter of the rocking uptempo, "Worth Somethin’ Aint’ It," may seem like foreign territory to a 26-year-old, but its message really hit home for Brandi when “my classmates and I graduated from the University of Georgia at the top of our class and basically got a pat on the back and applications for Starbucks.”

Power ballad "Strength of a Heart" is the cut she has been performing the longest. She owns its intricate phrasing and subtle nuances. Like a well-traveled road, she takes the listener on a vocal tour pointing out the depth, breadth and as the title fittingly suggests, the strength of a heart.

Maybe the most personal song on the entire project is a little gem entitled, "They Sing." Brandi relates, “I was raised on the back row of First Baptist. The view from there has changed through the years. There has been great joy, devastating tragedy, love, and loss but the singular band of continuity is the fact that everyone is still here.” It is a powerful ballad, deftly delivered, providing a glimpse of the roots and wings that her religious upbringing and beliefs have been grounded in since birth.

“Most people have to search to find their career, but mine was easy…it found me,” she recalls. “When I was younger, I dreamt of someone in the right place at the right time hearing me and helping me get where I wanted to be. Unfortunately, time was passing and I just knew I had to get out there and DO it. And I knew that this was the only thing I wanted to do – there was never any question in my mind.”

Brandi Thornton is ready to record again. She is a little older, a little wiser and probably even more demanding of herself. “I want to make another project that is absolutely, without a doubt, me. And I think I do know exactly what I want to sound like.” Another New Place to Start lies in front of Brandi Thornton. Like any self-possessed young woman, each of her journeys will inevitably begin and end on her own terms and in her own time.

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