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See Cory Branan at Chelsea’s

Cory Branan is the kind of guy who would already be a household name if the Nashville music machine ran on the power of merit alone. Branan performs at Chelsea’s Wednesday with local songwriter Joe Arnette and Elsah. The show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets start at $8 online.

During the course of a decade-long career, Branan has managed to build an impressive catalog and a devout following while working outside of Nashville’s modern country music industry, one where ghostwritten hits are sent to the hype factory and stars in flashy packaging are born.

Even the title of Branan’s newest record, The No Hit Wonder, is a less than subtle nod to his outsider status in that scene. The record came out two weeks ago and is probably already giving industry big wigs nightmares, being that the album is roughly seven times better than anything they have helped turn out in the last 10 years.

The No Hit Wonder is a remarkably dense collection of thoughtful but upbeat honky tonk rock and roll songs. These songs cover a lot of musical and literary territory, though they remain steadfastly “country” even as they remind you of others far removed from that genre. Even non-discerning country fans might shimmy to it before realizing that the songs are actually about something and are intended to stimulate brain activity. This is what CMT would sound like if Tom Waits and John Prine had staged a hostile takeover of the network back in the 90’s.

Listen to the record, give a copy to the pop country radio die-hard in your life, tell them you’re welcome, and go see the show together. If even one person does so, it will have raised the level of discourse around country music closer to where it should be.

Hear “All I Got and Gone” below.