Berube Communications

Sandra McCracken
‘Last Goodbye’ – single release 16th July
‘Best Laid Plans’ – album release August 6th
on Shell Records - Distributed by Pinnacle

Nashville based Sandra McCracken writes music worth remembering and her third album ‘Best Laid Plans’ sees her at her most memorable yet. Sandra has the ability to create music that has depth and dimension that you could look back over years and still see something there you never saw before. Despite being based in the heart of country music, Sandra’s songs have more of a pop / folk feel. Her songwriting traces the influence of timeless, thoughtful songwriters like Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne and Shawn Colvin whilst vocally she is reminiscent of a young Emmy Lou Harris.

Sandra’s first two albums ‘The Crucible’ (1999) and ‘Gypsy Flat Road’ (2001) were released in American by Sandra herself through her website and independent stores. Notching up both great reviews and significant sales, the records were effortless for the ears, showcasing her guitar-driven songwriting and proving that she deserves wide attention.

‘Best Laid Plans’ plans is produced by Peter Collins (Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper, Rush, Indigo Girls) who Sandra met in Spring 2003. Sandra: “I knew Peter’s work and was excited to see how he would add to the songs. There was an amazing chemistry and collaborative effort in the making of this record and the final product is certainly well beyond what I could have imagined”.

Growing up as the youngest of five children in a music-loving family, where the record player was always on, Sandra started out on the piano before teaching herself to play the guitar. She would be inspired to write lyrics whilst sitting in her English literature classes and when her first self-penned song was performed by her fellow pupils to the entire school “something clicked and I felt that as a musician and songwriter I had my identity”.

The release of ‘Best Laid Plans’ on Dave Robinson’s (founder of Stiff Records) new label Shell Records will be Sandra’s first release in Ireland & Britain “I'm waiting with anticipation to see if this album will translate across ocean, culture, and all sorts of boundaries. I hope for the emotion and melody to be universal and penetrating to audiences in Ireland & the UK, but music is a mysterious business regardless. Anytime you connect story and song with someone you've never met, you unleash all sorts of possibility.”

The debut single ‘Last Goodbye’ is a powerful yet breezy pop song and if ever a record was “made for radio” this is it.