Brandy Clark dates the album the bird for 15 January on Reprise

Brandy Clark has set 15 January for the bird, her next album, out through Reprise Records, and released a song from it today. American Roots is the first piece of it to arrive, and the record runs to 11 tracks.

Shooter Jennings produced it, and Clark recorded it with members of her own touring band rather than session players: Gabe Burdulia, Amanda McCoy and Erin Nelson. That is a choice with consequences, because a road band plays songs the way they will be played live rather than the way they sound best once.

Two guests appear. Rosanne Cash sings on Old Woman and SistaStrings play on Astronaut, and both are credited on the tracklist rather than buried in the notes.

What the songs are about is stated plainly by the label. MusicRow describes a record built around the search for connection in a world defined by division, working through love, loss, isolation and belonging.

Clark's own comment is less about the themes and more about the room. "We had such a great time bringing these songs to life in the studio," she says, adding that she hopes anyone listening finds a piece of themselves somewhere in the songs.

The running order opens with The Loner And The Lonely, Tower and Still Found You, then Goodnight Los Angeles, And The Sun Said To The Moon and American Roots, before the title track, Astronaut, Stranger On A Plane, Old Woman and If There's Someone You Love to close.

The touring is already booked. The Take Flight World Tour runs next year with shows in Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, Charleston and Atlanta among others, and tickets went on sale the day the album was announced.

The tour is covered separately on this site, and the album joins the new year's other country records on the release calendar, with the dates listed on the tour guide.