Award-winning singer-songwriter Grace Pettis has released her cathartic new record Down To The Letter. Following her critically acclaimed Working Woman album, Pettis’ much-anticipated sophomore MPress Records release pulls no punches and captures the Nashville-based, Alabama-Austin-raised singer-songwriter at the peak of her songwriting powers. Produced by Mary Bragg (Natalie Price), mixed by Jon Estes (Robyn Hitchcock, Dolly Parton), and mastered by John McLaggan (Parachute Mastering), Down To The Letter is a deeply personal album, chronicling the end of a marriage and the reclamation of self after betrayal, codependency, and loss with heartbreaking detail. The lyrics deftly toe the line between personal pain and universal catharsis. It also marks the second collaboration for Pettis and Bragg.
Listen/Order Down To The Letter HERE
Listen to “Joy” HERE
Listen to “Horses” HERE
Watch/Listen to “I Take Care of Me Now” HERE
Grounded by Pettis’ vocals and acoustic guitar, along with notable contributions from Bragg on acoustic guitar, the album also features Josh Kaler (Francis Cone, Heather Nova) on pedal steel, acoustic, and electric guitars with Owen Biddle and Jordan Perlson on electric bass and drums (respectively). Musician/producer Jon Estes (Robyn Hitchcock, Rodney Crowell) contributed upright bass, cello, piano, and B-3 and Will Hawley added horns to “Joy.” With final overdubs at Bragg’s own project studio, they were able to achieve both the aching intimacy of ballads such as “Horses,” the wistful “Sobering Up,” and other candid tracks like “Rain” and “I Didn’t Break This.” Guest vocals from Robby Hecht and Emily Scott Robinson round out this collection of songs.
“It was a very different process from the way Mary and I made our last record together (Working Woman),” recalls Grace. Her debut album Working Woman was recorded at Sound Emporium, a historic studio in Nashville. They brought in a raucous rock and roll band and tracked it live. But Bragg’s instinct for Down To The Letter was to record the project somewhere more familiar and intimate in a cozy and personal atmosphere. “It was just the three of us working on it for days,” Grace explains: “That was smart because it was the kind of safe and supportive environment I needed, where I was among friends and could be emotionally vulnerable with in the way I needed to be, to get the vocals we wanted to get. Mary was so great about allowing me to be human, while also encouraging me to make the best art possible.”
