Teri Bracken’s career as Brontë Fall began almost accidentally. The singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs had always been a music obsessive, dreaming of forming her own bands and playing on stages. While working at The Hideout, a beloved music venue in Chicago, Bracken told the talent buyer she was working under that she started a band. A week later, the booker asked if her band wanted to play a show there. So, Bracken hit the practice studio with a friend to add to the mere 2 songs they had written as said band. She threw together a bio, took some press photos, and sat in a cafe all day until she came up with a band name. Inspired by the perseverance of the Brontë sisters—whose resistance to gender stereotypes in their industry would be a guiding light for Bracken—she named the group “Brontë.” She added “Fall” after her favorite Emily Brontë poem, “Fall, Leaves, Fall.” That was the beginning of what has become Bracken’s life—a dedication to songcraft, equality, and the Nashville community she now calls home.

Bracken’s road to acclaimed songwriter began in childhood, when she picked up piano at age 7. Violin lessons soon followed and she spent many of her formative years in various choirs and orchestras. From there, she served as lead singer/violinist in a college rock band with a group of nineties rock loving frat boys, before ditching that scene to pursue a degree at Berklee—again for classical violin. It was at Berklee that she discovered her love of songwriting and fell in with the folk/roots scene there, which has no doubt influenced her mixed Americana/Alt-Pop sound today. Bracken eventually made her way to Nashville—a dream come true considering it is a songwriter’s mecca. Now, the Brontë Fall stage show will find Bracken playing violin, guitar, and piano; she always has an instrument in her hand.

Skyler Gudasz is a  day dreamer with the nightly blues. Songs & singing from Durham, NC.