Matraca Berg

Thursday, March 8

Crystal Hochhalter — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:55:29 +0000

“You and Tequila” Certified Platium

Crystal Hochhalter — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:12:11 +0000

“You and Tequila” has been certified platinum. This achievement marks the second single from his platium-selling Hemingway’s Whiskey album to reach this status.

“It’s thrilling to know that Deana Carter and Matraca Berg’s beautiful song has reached so many people,” Chesney said.

The song is also responsible for multiple ACM nods including Single of the Year, Song of the Year and Vocal Event of the Year, as well as two Grammy’s for Best Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Country Song.

You can read the MusicRow.com article here.

Saturday, February 18

Crystal Hochhalter — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:00:35 +0000

ACM Nominations & Critics’ Poll

Crystal Hochhalter — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:45:47 +0000

Matraca received some amazing news this week…

ACM NOMINATIONS
“You And Tequila”
Recorded by: Kenny Chesney Featuring Grace Potter
Written by: Matraca Berg & Deana Carter

Nominated for: Single Record of the Year & Song of the Year!

NASHVILLE SCENE’S
12th ANNUAL COUNTRY MUSIC CRITICS’ POLL

Matraca was mentioned twice in this recent poll:
Best Album: #10 Matraca Berg The Dreaming Fields
Songwriters: #2 Matraca Berg
You can read the full results of the poll HERE.

January 22, 2012

Crystal Hochhalter — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:37:55 +0000

It is January 22. Almost 10 p.m.. and we are waiting for tornadoes to sweep through middle Tennessee. Tornadoes have always been almost a totem in my life. I lived in Indianapolis for a short time as a child. I’ll never forget the first dark, bruised heavy sky that warned of the terrible storm that was approaching. My cousin Timmy was visiting from Nashville and my mother knew something might be coming and told him what to look for so he could get us to safety. I remember I was riding on my big wheel…then Timmy running to me and turning me the other way to see the dark tide of cloud approaching our home. Next thing I remember was the whole family crowded under the stairwell. Dad had a flashlight. I was crying. My little brother Eric, who was just a toddler, patted my arm like everything was going to be fine. He still does that..sweet little brother. My sister, was fearless as always. But we were all very quiet. Very still. I heard a distant roar..but it went by quickly and missed us by about a quarter mile. We were lucky. To this day, I have tornado dreams. It is usually when I feel my life is out of control, or something bad is coming. I can say with much relief, I haven’t had one in a long time.

So many great things have happened. I have been nominated for a grammy with Deana Carter for You and Tequila, my stepson and his wife Dorian had a big ol boy named Declan James Hanna, I am writing with the coolest girls to come through Nashville in years, Angaleena Presley, Ashlee Monroe, Kimberley Perry, Mary Steenburgen…life is good. I still can make a living doing what I do and that means a lot. Times are hard in the music industry. Piracy is destroying so many of my friend’s livelyhoods. I wish people understood who was really hurt by this. Most of us aren’t wealthy or even close, but we contribute a great deal. Then there are the young ones who are having a much harder time even getting started. It makes me sad. I love the access of the internet…but wish there was a way to get people paid. It’s just a few cents per play… it needs to add up. Or the music dies.From the bottom up. It’s just a matter of time.It breaks my heart. Storm is coming for sure if they can’t figure out how to protect intellectual property. Art makes life worth while. For me anyway. I don’t want to miss out on the next Bruce Springsteen, or Harlan Howard.

The wind is screaming outside my window…I need to go check the weather!.

Love and peace to all of you, M

“Dreaming Fields” makes Engine 145 & Performing Songwriter’s lists

Joey Luscinski — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:57:22 +0000

Engine 145 named “Dreaming Fields” #3 in their Best Albums of 2011 list:
It had been nearly 12 years between Berg albums. The Dreaming Fields was more than worth the wait. “You and Tequila,” co-written with Deana Carter, got the lion’s share of attention in 2011 thanks to Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter’s recording, but it’s just one in a collection of 11 stellar songs; from the piano-laced title track about the death of the family farm (which also appeared on Trisha Yearwood’s Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love) to the bluesy, hard-edged other woman tale “Your Husband’s Cheating on Us,” Berg proves why she’s one of the best singer-songwriters in country and roots music. Oh, Matraca. Don’t ever leave us again.

“Dreaming Fields” made it on Performing Songwriter’s 10 Favorite CDs of 2011 list:
Matraca Berg is one of Nashville’s finest and most respected songwriters, and this is a shining showcase of her work wrapped in her gorgeous voice. The Dreaming Fields is Matraca’s first release in 14 years, and is a complete delight. She’s simply one of the best. (Matraca Berg’s The Dreaming Fields was featured in Performing Songwriter’s Be Heard Jukebox.)

Matraca Berg’s “The Dreaming Fields” is on Muruch’s Top 25 of 2011 list

Joey Luscinski — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:30:34 +0000

Matraca’s “The Dreaming Fields” is mentioned in another list for 2011!

Click on the album titles to read the full reviews, purchase the albums, and, in some cases, download mp3s… View their list HERE

Best Folk and Americana Albums of 2011

Joey Luscinski — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:44:09 +0000

About.com released their top ten Best Folk and Americana Albums of 2011 list. Matraca’s The Dreaming Fields made the list!

When she first appeared on the scene, Matraca Berg was one of the most promising up-and-coming singer-songwriters in Nashville. Her songs were heartbreaking and raw, honest and unapologetic, opening up to something so many artists don’t have the courage to explore. But then life happened, and she wound up taking more than a decade off before her next full-length album. After that long “break”, Berg returned this year with The Dreaming Fields – an emotional and intimate collection of starkly honest songs. There are few words which desribe this album more than “beautiful.”

See the complete list HERE

American Songwriter’s Top 50 Songs Of 2011

Joey Luscinski — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:38:08 +0000

Matraca’s version of “You and Tequila” landed at #35 on American Songwriter’s Top 50 Songs of 2011 list. See what they had to say below…

Sure, this song has been sloshing around for nearly a decade, covered by the likes of Kenny Chesney and Deana Carter. But Berg makes it sound completely new, her steady vocals and gentle way with a melody lending this tale of drunk-driving around Los Angeles fresh resonance.

You can see the whole list HERE.

Matraca Berg’s “You & Tequila” Scores A Grammy Nomination

Crystal Hochhalter — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 01:59:30 +0000

Matraca Berg’s “You & Tequila” Scores A Grammy Nomination

Track from her Acclaimed Dreaming Fields Continues Earning Kudos

Nashville: With rave reviews in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, Rolling Stone and NPR, Matraca Berg’s The Dreaming Fields has resonated with critics. The Songwriter of Hall of Fame member has found herself in the Top 5 on the Americana chart. And now “You & Tequila,” the haltingly lovely track from Berg’s first album in 14 years, picks up another nomination: Country Song of the Year.

“When Kenny (Chesney) and Grace (Potter) cut ‘You & Tequlia,’ they did an amazing job,” says Berg. “They found that sweet/sore spot of wanting and remembering, that knowing how much you shouldn’t, but sensing how good you know it’s gonna feel… Fighting that is tough, and you can hear it in their voices.

“And it’s funny, I never heard it as a duet, only a personal struggle. But, man…”

For Berg, who won the 1997 CMA Song of the Year for “Strawberry Wine,” this marks her third Grammy nomination for Country Song of the Year . In addition to “Strawberry Wine,” she was nominated for Gretchen Wilson’s “I Don’t Feel Like Loving You Today.” Reba McEntire (“The Last To Know”), Patty Loveless (“You Can Feel Bad”), The Dixie Chicks (“If I Fall”), Martina McBride (“Wild Ange;s”) and Trisha Yearwood (“Wrong Side of Memphis,” “Xs+Os”) have all – like Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter – received Vocal Performance nominations singing her songs.

“You don’t write songs for nominations,” says the woman who writes from the center of the human heart, “you write to make things clear, to sort stuff out, to really feel the feeling. But when you get nominated, dom’t kid yourself, it feels great ‘cause to me, it means you hit the bulls eye for so many other people, too! That’s the greatest feeling: that other people know just what it is.”

Iconic songwriter Kris Kristofferson tis certainly one. In a recent interview, he proclaimed, “I don’t listen to a lot of music at all any more, but I just heard a great album that Matraca Berg did… She’s one of the best singer/songwriters now.” Sharing his opinion are USA Today, who declared, “One of Nashville’s most graeful singer/songwriters…,” The New York Times’ Jon Pareles who wrote, “With melodies steeped in hymns and Appalachia, she sings character studies that ponder the inevitability of loss…” and Rolling Stone offered, “a writer more concerned with making tradition her own.”

With a performance at WRLT’s Music City Roots earlier this week, a benefit with acclaimed authors Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle Dec. 1 and an appearance with Billy Joe Shaver on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Mountain Stage to be taped Dec. 4, it’s starting out as a busy December for the woman headed to LA for the 2012 Grammy Awards. With a video of “the Dreaming Fields” shot with noted photographer Jack Spencer in the final stages of editing, it’s looking like her new year is going to be just as intense.