Editorial Reviews
From the Label
Grace Braun (pronounced "Brown") founded the indie garage/punk band DQE in high school and despite the band's cult success, Braun took a decidedly different road and spent the last two years revisiting her Kentucky musical roots which has resulted in her first solo album It Won't Hurt.A direct descendant of Charles Wesley, composer of the earliest of Methodist hymns, Braun's recent time spent with the church choir has helped developed her recognizable folk bent into rich country, folk songwriting.While recording several successful DQE albums, But Me I fell Down (1993) and Jump On In (1995), Braun made a major shift in style. No longer interested in the negative elements of punk rock, in 1994 she embarked on a new musical journey rooted in the style of mountain folk songs. By 1995, she was performing acoustic sets of folk, blues, pop, country and ballads with a brief detour back into the avant-pop arena to collaborate with one of her idols, underground icon Jad Fair to record DQE and Jad Fair"(1996).
With this first recorded foray into solo songwriter and performer, Braun maintains her capacity for using simplicity to capture the essence of her subject while . Musically this album ranges from acapella hymns, to instrumentation that includes washbaord, fiddle, dobro, e-bow, and pedal steel guitar. Most stunning of all is Braun's use of her vocal instrument. Braun arranged and sung all the harmonies on the album, and her expert ear is no more apparent than on her a capella rendition of the folk hymn "What Wondrous Love Is This."On "Jennywren," she vividly conveys the true story of her grandfather's farewell to his wife as he departs on a train journey from rural Kentucky to find work in the big city. And though all her songs are self reflections, Grace has the ability to tell a timeless, universal story as in the fairy tale "Mermaid and the Sailor" and has established a modern standard for simple, elegant songs with "Bittersweet" and "O My Ladies."It Won't Hurt is not only the celebration of Braun's debut as a solo artist, but a return to the refinement and simplicity of beautiful songwriting.
It Won't Hurt,Grace Braun,Slow River Records,Alternative Pop/Rock,Pop,Popular Music,Rock,Rock/Pop,Singer/Songwriter
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