Bri Bagwell.Photo: Haley Hays
Bri Bagwellhas never been afraid to write a vulnerable song. But as she began writing for her new albumCorazon y Cabeza, the Texas Female Country Artist of the Year began to feel like maybe, she was beingtoohonest.
“My boyfriend and I both have been just working, clawing our way through life recently,” Bagwell, 35, admits to PEOPLE in a recent interview aboutCorazon y Cabeza, which features her longtime boyfriend and fellow music artist Paul Eason playing guitar on multiple cuts. “In that way, songs like ‘Trenches’ is very specific to me. But the overall theme of the song is very universal and the insight it gives listeners into my life is something that I’m totally OK with now.”
And now, with the reins off, Bagwell seems more than ready to fly.
“This whole album is really just me writing with no parameters,” says Bagwell, who is increasingly finding her name being mentioned amongst country music truthtellers such asAshley McBrydeandMorgan Wade. “We don’t have to follow this little box of being a woman. We can really do anything we want.”
Bri Bagwell.Haley Hays
“My mom and dad both worked,” the New Mexico native recalls. “They have just always been the epitome of the American dream. They just worked so hard, and they built such great success stories. I just had them to look up to my whole life.”
And it was this hard-working type of attitude that drove Bagwell to pursue a music career right out of college.
“I graduated from the University of Texas in Austin when I was 21 years old and I had a day job for a grand total of three months,” she remembers with a laugh. “I had been playing shows since I was a senior in college, and I remember one night coming home from a show at three or four in the morning and having a meeting just a few hours later. I knew right then and there that I wasn’t going to be able to do both of these things and be successful.”
So, she quit her job and dove headfirst into a singing career. But first, there was a whole lot of hard work to be done.
“Looking back, I was playing for pennies,” she remembers of the early days of her career. “But I was young, and I had energy and I just did it. I’m so glad that I made that decision.”
Indeed, that hard work has resulted in Bagwell becoming one of Texas' brightest female stars to date, scoring a slew of number one singles such as “As Soon as You” and “Heroes.” But over the pandemic lockdown of 2020, Bagwell also found herself craving more when it came to her already successful career.
“I was touring 150 to 200 dates a year before COVID, so I never slowed down long enough to really get a bird’s eye view of my career,” she explains. “It allowed me to figure out who am I and what I really wanted to say. It took me a long time to find my voice and find my message.”
Assisting Bagwell in finding that voice and message were countless people surrounding her that believed in her dreams as much as she did.
“I’m constantly surrounding myself with better songwriters than me, better producers than me, better singers than me,” she says. “You cannot surround yourself with people that just always tell you ‘yes.’ You have to find people that will push you out of your comfort zone.”
Take for example the album cover for her latest album,Corazon y Cabeza, which features Bagwell donning a stunning red dress from Akira.
“They push me to wear this red dress and at first, I was like, ‘I can’t wear that. Are you outta your mind?'” she remembers with a chuckle. “Now, I’m so glad it’s the album cover because I love how the wind blew the train into the shape of a heart which I thought was the perfect depiction of the album title. I put all of my heart into these songs and this photo expresses my joy and love for this project.”
It also symbolizes something else.
She quips, “I want people to like me, but still know that I could maybe kick some ass.”
source: people.com
