Matraca Berg

• Genre: New Country
• Hometown: Nashville
• Matraca Berg Website

About

Matraca Berg began her career as a songwriter, penning hits for such Nashville luminaries as Reba McEntire and Deanna Carter. Initially considered too eclectic for the industry stuffed shirts, Berg's 1990 debut was received rather coolly but has since been re-evaluated and recognized for the quality country that it is, culminating in a 1999 re-release of the record. Nevertheless the faltering start affected her career and it wasn't until Sunday Morning to Saturday Night (1997) that she lived up to her true potential as a singer-songwriter. Bluesy ballads and lonesome drinkers show just how deep her roots go, but it's the Honky-Tonk stompers that are the real attraction. With a deliciously insinuating delivery and pure country backing, Berg's songs are loaded with cow-town double entendres and punch-drunk rowdiness. With a voice that communicates Dolly Parton's delicacy, Loretta Lynn's uncompromising self-reliance and a brand of barroom raunch that is very much her own, Matraca Berg cuts quite an impressive figure in the Nashville scene.

- Mike McGuirk