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. This new era of Brontë Fall is heralded by the stunning single “Woman Like Me,” which emerged from years in the industry that were trying and heartbreaking, but ultimately strengthened her resolve in her mission. After releasing Finishing School in 2020 and recording Winter in 2021 (released in 2022), the songwriter, who has called Nashville home for six years, took some time to be with her ailing father. “Life really went off the rails. On Winter, I was writing about being in a tornado. That’s what my world felt like,” Bracken explains. She’d finish tours and go visit her father in the hospital, who ultimately passed away in July 2022. It’s in his honor that this new work began. “I write. That’s how I get through life,” Bracken explains.
