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Matraca Berg: The Daughter of Music Row

Holly Gleason, Oxford American, 22 January 2014

A SLIGHT, YOUNG brunette stood alone in a navy Richard Tyler slip on the Opry House stage, backed by a pianist and a string quartet, and sang 'Back When We Were Beautiful', a heartbreaking song about aging. Less than thirty minutes before, she'd won the Country Music Association's coveted Song of the Year Award for 'Strawberry Wine', then Vince Gill had introduced her to the roomful of superstars and music industry power brokers as "an artist, a true poet." And so Matraca Berg, voice slightly quaking, made her network television debut.

Total word count of piece: 2033

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