Cory Branan

Related Content

• Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music
  October 19, 2011
• Friday: Ryan Adams Makes 'Em Laugh -- Really -- at the Herbst Theatre
  October 17, 2011
• Is This the Coachella 2012 Lineup?
  November 29, 2011
• Old Rocker (Roger Waters) to Perform Old Album (The Wall) for (Old) Fans in AT&T Park
  November 1, 2011
• Last Night: New Folk Rock Supergroup The Emerald Triangle
  November 3, 2009

More About

• Cory Branan
• Ryan Adams
• Relationships
• Dating

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

On his second CD, Mississippi native Cory Branan has knifed his name into the alt-country canon. The closest analogue here in sound and quality is Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker, and the 31-year-old Branan shares Adams' tendency to nestle introspective ballads against full-throttle rockers. The themes of 12 Songs are also inherited ones — girls, booze, and cars (and the moments when the three combine to offer a rare glimpse of heaven). What elevates Branan above his No Depression peers is his winking charisma and unshowy eloquence. You can't help but fall for a guy who writes this well, and his rich lyrics make the barn-burning hollers ("Girl Named Go," "Hell-Bent and Heart-First," "The Prettiest Waitress in Memphis") feel as complex as the love songs. They also make his love songs (especially the desert-island-pick "Tall Green Grass") nothing short of heavenly.