Big Day in a Small Town

Last updated
Big Day in a Small Town
BigDayinaSmallTown.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedJune 10, 2016 (2016-06-10)
Genre Country
Length40:20
Label Warner Bros. Nashville
Producer Jay Joyce
Brandy Clark chronology
12 Stories
(2013)
Big Day in a Small Town
(2016)
Live from Los Angeles
(2017)
Singles from Big Day in a Small Town
  1. "Girl Next Door"
    Released: February 16, 2016
  2. "Love Can Go to Hell"
    Released: September 12, 2016
  3. "Three Kids No Husband"
    Released: April 2017

Big Day in a Small Town is the second studio album by American country music artist Brandy Clark. It was released on June 10, 2016, through Warner Bros. Records. [1] The album was nominated for Best Country Album and the album's second single, "Love Can Go To Hell", was nominated for Best Country Solo Performance at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. [2]

Contents

Background

Two of the album's tracks were previously recorded by other artists: "Homecoming Queen" previously appeared on Feels Like Home , the 2013 studio album by Sheryl Crow, and "Three Kids No Husband" previously appeared on the 2014 album Numbered Doors , by its co-writer Lori McKenna.

The track "Daughter" features Clark's close friend and collaborator Kacey Musgraves on harmony vocals.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 84/100 [3]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [4]
Exclaim! 9/10 [5]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [6]
Spin 8/10 [7]
Uncut 8/10 [8]
Vice (Expert Witness)A− [9]

Big Day in a Small Town received highly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 84 out of 100, which indicates "universal acclaim" based on 5 reviews. [3] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic states: "Songs rarely come much better than these." [4] Rolling Stone's Will Hermes calls it "music tooled alternately for stadiums and songwriting circles, commercial and public radio, line-dance bars and coffee shops." [6] Additionally, it was the Spin "album of the week" and called "fantastic; often a superb piece of recorded music" by reviewer Alfred Soto. [7] The Boston Globe 's Stuart Munro wrote: "If you're looking for alternatives to mainstream country, Clark is still providing one... you just have to keep listening beyond the first two tracks to find it." [10]

Award nominations for Big Day in a Small Town
YearAssociationCategoryResult
2017 Grammy Awards [2] Best Country Album Nominated
Accolades for Big Day in a Small Town
PublicationRankList
AllMusic N/ABest Albums of 2016 [11]
American Songwriter 21Top 50 Albums of 2016 [12]
Entertainment Weekly 8The Best Country Albums of 2016 [13]
Rolling Stone 640 Best Country Albums of 2016 [14]
2750 Best Albums of 2016 [15]
Stereogum 4The 20 Best Country Albums of 2016 [16]
Uproxx 7The 20 Best Country Albums of 2016 [17]

Track listing

Writing credits source: BMI [18]

All tracks are written by Brandy Clark, with additional co-writers as noted

Big Day in a Small Town track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Soap Opera"3:25
2."Girl Next Door"4:33
3."Homecoming Queen"
3:07
4."Broke"
3:39
5."You Can Come Over"
  • Dillon
  • Mark Narmore
3:53
6."Love Can Go to Hell"
  • Scott Stepakoff
3:58
7."Big Day in a Small Town"
3:43
8."Three Kids No Husband"3:14
9."Daughter"
  • Dillon
  • Jeremy Spillman
3:19
10."Drinkin', Smokin', Cheatin'" 2:57
11."Since You've Gone to Heaven"
  • McAnally
4:32
Total length:40:20

Personnel

Credits adapted from AllMusic. [19]

Commercial performance

Big Day in a Small Town debuted at number eighty-two on the US Billboard 200 chart [20] with 8,100 equivalent album units; it sold 7,400 copies in its first week, with the remainder of its unit total reflecting the album's streaming activity and track sales. [21] As of August 2016 the album has sold 15,500 copies in the US. [22]

Chart performance

Chart performance for Big Day in a Small Town
Chart (2016)Peak
position
UK Country Albums (OCC) [23] 3
US Billboard 200 [24] 82
US Top Country Albums (Billboard) [25] 8
US Folk Albums (Billboard) [26] 5

Release history

Release history of Big Day in a Small Town
RegionDateFormat(s)Label
United StatesJune 10, 2016 Warner Bros.

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References

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