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All Music Guide:
Before she became a recording artist in her own right, Matraca Berg was a professional songwriter with a strong industry pedigree: her mother was songwriter and session vocalist Icee Berg, who helped get her daughter started in the music business as a teenager thanks to her contacts at several music publishing companies. Berg scored her first success in 1983, teaming with Bobby Braddock to write "Faking Love," which became a number one hit for T.G. Sheppard and Karen Brooks. Berg subsequently spent two years as the keyboardist for the Kevin Stewart Band, then returned to her Nashville songwriting career. She would go on to contribute material to Suzy Bogguss, Patty Loveless, Trisha Yearwood, Reba McEntire, Pam Tillis, Deana Carter, Martina McBride, and many others. Eventually, Berg began to toy with the idea of recording her own compositions, and issued her debut album, Lying to the Moon, on RCA in 1990. The album won numerous critical accolades for its musical eclecticism, thoughtful lyrics, and rootsy, acoustic sound.
However, it wasn't a blockbuster, and RCA tried to push Berg in a more contemporary, commercial direction -- so much so that they rejected her proposed follow-up album. Berg switched from the label's Nashville division over to the pop side, and many critics felt that the resulting albums, 1991's Bittersweet Surrender and 1993's The Speed of Grace, failed to replicate the strengths of Lying to the Moon. Finally frustrated with RCA's interference, Berg left to sign with the indie label Rising Tide; her first effort, 1997's Sunday Morning to Saturday Night, returned to the style of her debut with resounding creative success (as most critics agreed). Since then, Berg has continued her successful songwriting career, also finding work as a backup session singer; meanwhile, RCA reissued her debut with some bonus tracks as Lying to the Moon & Other Stories. Berg returned to recording in 2010 and cut The Dreaming Fields, on which she wrote or co-wrote every track. It was released by Dualtone in the spring of 2011.
Wikipedia:
Matraca Maria Berg ( /əˈeɪə/; born February 3, 1964 in Nashville, Tennessee) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She has released five albums: three for RCA Records, one for Rising Tide Records and one for Dualtone Records, and has charted in the top 40 of the U.S. Billboard country charts with "Baby, Walk On" and "The Things You Left Undone," both at #36. Besides most of her own material, Berg has written hits for T.G. Sheppard, Karen Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Deana Carter and others. In 2008 she was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Early history
Matraca Berg's mother, Icie Berg, moved from Harlan County, Kentucky, to Nashville in the 1960s to seek her fortune as a singer and songwriter shortly before Matraca was born. Her Aunt Sudie Callaway was a successful Music Row backup singer. Aunts Coleida Callaway and Clara Howard were backup vocalists on Kentucky’s Renfro Valley Barn Dance. Uncle Jim Baker was a steel guitar player who also spent some time running Mel Tillis's song publishing companies.
Berg's mother found only limited success in the music industry and eventually became a nurse. Berg herself then took up songwriting with her mother's encouragement. When Berg played her songs for songwriter Bobby Braddock, he volunteered to co-write with her. She found her earliest success in their collaboration, "Faking Love", which was sung by Karen Brooks and T. G. Sheppard, topping the Billboard Hot Country Singles (now Hot Country Songs) charts on February 19, 1983.
Career history
After her mother's death in 1985, Berg continued to have great success writing songs for other performers. After Reba McEntire had a #1 song with her "The Last One to Know", and Randy Travis, Tanya Tucker, Ray Price, Marie Osmond, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Michelle Wright and others recorded her songs.
Berg signed to a recording contract with RCA Records Nashville in 1990, releasing her debut album Lying to the Moon that year. Its first two singles, "Baby, Walk On" and "The Things You Left Undone," both charted in the country top 40 at #36, followed by the #43 "I Got It Bad" and #55 "I Must Have Been Crazy."
What was to be her follow-up album, Bittersweet Surrender, was recorded in 1991. It featured the single "It's Easy to Tell," which charted in November 1991. The album was rejected by the label, which wanted a more mainstream-sounding recording instead. One of the songs from this canceled album, "Wrong Side of Memphis," later became a Top Ten hit for Trisha Yearwood. She continued to write for others, and in 1993, RCA issued a second album entitled The Speed of Grace.
In 1997, Berg co-wrote "Strawberry Wine" along with Gary Harrison, which Deana Carter released as a single. Berg won the "Song of the Year" award that year at the CMA (Country Music Association) Awards. The same year, she released the album Sunday Morning to Saturday Night via Rising Tide Records; it produced the singles "That Train Don't Run" and "Back in the Saddle," the former of which was released by Pinmonkey in 2006. In 1999, RCA released a compilation album entitled Lying to the Moon & Other Stories which also included tracks from her 1997 Rising Tide release.
In 2004 and 2005, Berg was nominated for induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, making her one of the youngest nominees in history. She continues to be a prolific and respected country songwriter. She currently lives in Nashville with her husband, Jeff Hanna, a member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. During 2007, She was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008.
