Dapper Tunes: Brandy Clark's Stripes

It may be my love of the television series Nashville or maybe it's just because you can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy. Whatever the reason, I have a soft spot for country music. If that music hearkens back to the classics by Loretta Lynn or Dolly Parton, all the better.

Brandy Clark's music joins the tradition of strong women in country. Like Ms. Lynn, Clark's songs are little portraits of women struggling to get along in the world. In addition to this track, Stripes, Clark sings about mamas getting stoned and girlfriends getting revenge on her new album 12 Stories. By country standards, the subject matter may seems shocking - until you remember that Loretta Lynn was singing the praises of the birth control pill and Dolly Parton was bouncing around in a whorehouse in Texas!


Although I appreciate country music, I haven't bought a country album in years. I think the last album by a country artist that I purchased was Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose, her brilliant collaboration with rocker Jack White. But from the minute I heard snippets of Brand Clark's album in a review on NPR's Fresh Air, I knew I had to have it. While I enjoy each and every song on the album, it's Stripes that tickles me fashionable funny bone with these lines:

"I hate stripes and orange ain't my color.
If I squeeze that trigger tonight I'll be wearing one or the other.
There's no crime of passion worth a crime of fashion..."

Check out the video above and go download Brandy Clark's new album 12 Stories.

Image: Screen capture from Stripes music video