Brandon Ratcliff - Tale Of Two Towns (2023) [Hi-Res]

Two years since his last release, singer/songwriter Brandon Ratcliff returns with new music and a new sound. His latest track, “Tale of Two Towns” deals with the waterfall of consequences and rewards that come from leaving home, and questions his own journey since moving to Nashville years ago from his tiny hometown of Cotton Valley, LA (population 962).

The sonic shift is one Ratcliff has worked hard to reach, finally feeling himself, musically, after singing with Monument Records back in 2018. After releasing his debut single, “Rules Of Breaking Up,” in October of that same year and accumulating over 50 million streams, he hit the road with Kelsea Ballerini and Brett Young, and opened dates for Keith Urban. He appeared on the Spotify Viral Chart and was selected as a Pandora Ones to Watch artist, while topping Rolling Stone’s all-genre Breakthrough Artists chart. A new artist on the rise.

But when 2020 hit and the world shut down, Ratcliff found himself at a crossroads with his music, his sound, and his life, so he went back to the hometown he was so eager to leave. While there he wrote nonstop, telling stories he had never shared before. The first song to emerge from this musical exploration is “Tale of Two Towns.” An autobiographical track about what it took to leave home and what it could have looked like to stay.

Greatly influenced by the music of the Louisiana delta, and the bluegrass engrained in his blood from his mother, part of the legendary bluegrass band The Cox Family, the first sound you hear on the song is a recording of a 1920s advertisement from Cotton Valley after a natural disaster struck the town.