[Cover photo credit to Alex Berger]
Nashville-based singer/songwriter and Producer Mary Bragg has announced her new album, Secrets to Strangers, which will arrive on October 16th, 2026, through Single Lock Records via Secretly Distribution. Her first new album in over four years, Secrets to Strangers was recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals and finds Bragg teaming up with Grammy Award-winning artist/producer John Paul White and Producer, engineer, and keyboardist Ben Tanner.
She has shared the first look at the record with “What Do I Do,” a “rumination on uncertainty”, featuring a duet with John Paul White who also guests in the official video.
Bragg says:
So much of this record is about giving yourself permission to enter a day and not have the answers to all your problems. But at least saying, ‘These are my problems.’ Being real with yourself about how hard this life is, because a million things get thrown at you and you don’t always know what to do about them.
With this, her sixth full-length album, Bragg delivers “a collection of deeply personal stories offered to the outside world.” Its twelve songs written with stand-out co-writers, including Mindy Smith, Maia Sharp, Brady Stablein, and Zach Berkman, and in them she “approaches memory, longing, and self-acceptance.”
After years of Producing and engineering her own work, as well as for others (including Grace Pettis, The Accidentals, and Jackson Emmer), Bragg handed off the reins this time in order to expand her sonic landscape and open herself up to new creative possibilities. The search led her two hours southwest to Muscle Shoals, where Ben Tanner and John Paul White were waiting.
Together, they assembled players, including drummer Chad Gamble (Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit), bassist Zac Cockrell (Alabama Shakes) and guitarist/keyboardist Jay Gonzalez (Drive-By Truckers). The result is a record that stretches Americana to include Indie Rock, Pop, early ’80s radio vibes and southern Soul.
She says:
Being in the Shoals felt like home to me. But I’ll attribute the feeling largely to Ben and John, because we are all cut from the same cloth. When we started recording, none of us knew how joyful it would become, not only musically but personally.
White adds:
Working with Mary is a producer’s dream. She’s a total pro, works hard, hits her marks. Sings beautifully – and like no other. This is one of my favorite projects I’ve had the pleasure and honor to produce – and no small part of that is how much I adore her as a person.
Tour Dates:
08/30 – Farmers Branch, TX – Bankhead Brewpub
09/19 – Nashville, TN – AmericanaFest
09/23 – Columbus, OH – Natalie’s Grandview*
09/24 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall*
09/25 – Peoria, IL – Dingeldine Music Center*
09/26 – St. Louis, MO – (ware)HOUSE Concerts
10/14 – Nashville, TN – Eastside Bowl
11/22 – Los Altos, CA – House Concert
* w/ The Secret Sisters
