Brandy Clark returns this weekend with “American Roots,” her first new single in more than three years — and, incidentally her first since the New York Times named her one of the 30 greatest living American songwriters earlier this year. On the surface, it’s one of the country-est-sounding songs she’s ever done, and a patriotic anthem. But it’s patriotism for people who do not consider themselves nationalists.
And it owes a big debt to one of the 30 greatest dead American songwriters, Woody Guthrie. I was struck by Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land Is Your Land,’ because I never think of a song like that as having been written by a real person, because we all grew up singing it in school. We were talking about how people don’t write those songs as much, and so we wanted to take a stab at it.” Just as Guthrie’s song is a little edgier than it’s always been given credit for, Clark’s song gently upends some of the expectations that might arise nowadays for any song celebrating America.
It is determinedly on the side of immigrants, in its subtle and non-confrontational way, from the opening lines — “Tell me about your family tree / If we start digging where’s it gonna lead” — to the climactic thoughts in the stirring bridge: “It’s the light that we’re all looking for / The light above that golden door / And when you step foot onto that shore / It’s no more mine than it is yours.” Needless to say, Clark will not be invited to perform it at the next Turning Point convention, but the song could affect some hearts and minds as it comes up on a Spotify playlist in the family sedan, or wherever it might land as a conversation-starter. And he said, ‘It’s not polarizing. It’s patriotic.’ That really hit me, because that is the spirit with which it was birthed.
But I think sometimes you can feel like if you’re on a different side from some people, that it’s polarizing. You know, the MAGA contingent doesn’t own the flag, and I can forget that sometimes.” There was a personal origin point that figured into the writing. That sort of thing was going on, so that was definitely in our conversation and our consciousness.
I still think when you get back to those basic questions in the song, like, ‘Tell me about your mom and dad, and their moms and dads, and their moms and dads…’ If we sit here and have a conversation, we start to talk and we find that we have so many commonalities and really want the same things. We want to feel loved and safe, and we’re lucky to live in a country where any dream can come true if you work at it hard enough. I hope it’ll always be that way, and that’s part of this song, too, to remind people that this is a great country and we have to fight to keep it that way.” The song is the first to be released from Clark’s upcoming Shooter Jennings-produced album, “The Bird,” which was just announced Friday and will be out on Reprise Jan. 15, 2027.
Clark took Variety through the formation and evolution of “American Roots,” and how it affected the course of the entire album, which fans and newcomers will find to be an excellent addition to one of the most flawless catalogs in modern Americana music. That is my hope… I was getting ready to go out on this tour I did with Mary Chapin Carpenter, and my manager said, ‘You should play one new song in your set. Why don’t you try that ‘American Roots’ song the first night and see how that goes over?’ I did, and when I got to the bridge of ‘It’s no more mine than it is yours,’ people started clapping, and when I got to the end, everybody stood up.
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