Singer-songwriter Bridey Costello signs a publishing deal with Blue Harbor Music

Bridey Costello has signed a global publishing and strategic artist partnership deal with Blue Harbor Music, the Nashville company announced on Aug. 31. The arrangement covers her songwriting and her work as a recording artist rather than one or the other.

Costello, who is from Chicago, writes in a plainspoken register about family, queerness, growing up and working out who you are. Her recordings tend to keep the arrangement out of the way, closer to the immediacy of a voice memo or an early demo than a finished studio production.

She released a new single, Knew What I Wanted, on the same day the deal was announced, and is working on more music with further releases planned before the end of the year. Her live resume has been building through support slots for Olivia Barton, Abby Powledge, Taylor Bickett, Abby Holliday and Ethan Tasch.

Steve Markland, president of Blue Harbor Music, said Costello's writing stood out immediately. "Bridey is a uniquely talented writer with a voice and perspective that immediately stood out," he said, pointing to a habit of making very specific experiences read as universal ones.

The company framed the signing partly as a roster question, saying it wanted to widen the range of voices and perspectives it publishes. That is a familiar line in Nashville, where a publishing deal is the usual first serious contract a country writer signs, and where similar agreements have recently gone to Dave Turnbull at WinSongs Music and singer-songwriter Kinsley at Sony Music Publishing Nashville.