Hillary Bratton is a special singer. But when it comes to persistence, the Los Angeles native really takes things to a new level.
Take her debut album, Tears On My Pillow But The Rest Of The Bed’s Ok. Written by renowned songsmith Barry Reynolds, Bratton’s only connection with him years ago came through the tracks he wrote for other artists. She was about to change that.
“I’ve always been in love with his songs,” Bratton said. “I worked at Island Records a long time ago and I fell in love with the songs he wrote for Marianne Faithful and Grace Jones. And for two years before the internet, I asked everybody I knew, and I just had to meet him.”
She laughs, but she found Reynolds, and when it was time to record her first album, she knew who she wanted to write it.
“I can’t write like he does,” Bratton said. “I’d rather sing really great songs that somebody else wrote than write stuff that’s going to be forgettable in a couple years.”
It’s an admirable mindset to have. Sure, everybody wants to be DIY these days, but it’s better to have someone focus on one thing and do it well rather than try to be everything to everyone and be mediocre all around. Reynolds is a great songwriter, but it’s Bratton who steals the show, and when the dust settled, she had no regrets with her decision.
“I think they’re different arts,” she said of singing and songwriting. “Up until the Beatles, everybody was separate. Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Babs, the list goes on and on. Then the Beatles came along and everybody was expected to write their own songs.”
Yet the funny thing is, if you didn’t know that Reynolds wrote the album, you would leave a listening session feeling sorry for Bratton for all the heartache she suffered through. That’s how much she’s made the songs her own.
“I’ve known Barry for a long, long time and I can relate, and I feel like I’ve lived these songs,” she said. “I have. I’ve actually lived them. And they’re written in a much better way than I could do it. To me, his songs are very multi-layered. They’re simple but there are a lot of different meanings in them and I just love the balance of them. And they’re so melodic. He comes up with the most beautiful melodies.”
But about all that heartache?
“With any kind of real art, that’s the job,” Bratton said. “You want these people to go to the depths of hell and come back and put it in digestible form for the rest of us so we can sit back and ingest it from a comfortable viewpoint as opposed to going there ourselves. But yeah, you can feel sorry for me if you want. (Laughs) I did mix it up with a lot of humor.”
Reynolds, who will be on stage with Bratton Tuesday night when she plays Rockwood Music Hall, approves of the album. “He’s really happy with it,” said Bratton, and who knows, maybe this won’t be the last we hear from this dynamic duo, because when asked what’s next, she gets to the point without hesitation.
“I’ve been spending all my time on my own instrument. If I can’t come up with songs that are as good as his or Leonard Cohen’s, it’s like, ‘Why bother?’”
Hillary Bratton plays Rockwood Music Hall’s Stage 3 in NYC on Tuesday, June 14. For tickets, click here
