Brandon Ratcliff

Country musician Brandon Ratcliff often pushes past the usual limits of the genre. Rooted in the sincere emotion and everyday narratives of classic country, his sound also reflects deep affinities for R&B and current pop alongside any Nashville conventions. This fusion appeared across two discs with the arrival of his first album, Tale of Two Towns, in the opening months of 2023.

During his early twenties Ratcliff began assembling the components of that approach, and the single “Rules of Breaking Up” brought him early visibility when he turned 24. Born and raised in Cotton Valley, Louisiana, he grew up in a musical household; his mother, Suzanne Cox, sang with the acoustic country and gospel group the Cox Family. Family occasions regularly turned into group performances, surrounding him with an eclectic range of influences that included his mother’s favorites: country artist Merle Haggard, progressive bluegrass musician Ricky Skaggs, R&B figure Stevie Wonder, and pop band Fleetwood Mac. Although he first pictured a future in basketball, exposure to the music of Eric Church and John Mayer steered him toward songwriting and performance.

Offered a publishing deal at age 20, Ratcliff postponed the arrangement to strengthen his craft as both writer and vocalist. He later joined forces with producer Shane McAnally and songwriters Pete Good and AJ Babcock to develop the hybrid style that places contemporary pop and R&B tracks inside a country framework. Monument Records signed him and issued “Rules of Breaking Up” in October 2018; the track surpassed three million streams and earned him a slot on the Miss Me More tour with Brett Young and Kelsea Ballerini. February 2019 brought the follow-up single “Number in My Phone,” and both songs appeared on the 2020 EP Sometimes Always Never.

In 2022 Ratcliff began rolling out a new series of singles that opened with “Tale of Two Towns.” Joined by “Always Moving On” and “Grow Apart,” the tracks paved the way for the double album Tale of Two Towns, released in January 2023.