Bre Kennedy Debuts Deeply Personal New Single and Video, “Before I Have a Daughter”

It’s been a monumental year so far for local indie/folk pop singer-songwriter Bre Kennedy, who recently made her AmericanaFest debut, played Bonnaroo for the first time back in the summer, and is currently on tour with The Paper Kites. Still riding high on the buzz for her incredibly personal and musically ambitious 2021 full-length debut, Note to Self, in recent months and in addition to touring the nation, Bre has inked a deal with Nettwerk Music Group, unveiled an EP of stripped down renditions of some of Note to Self‘s best tunes, guested on a track with buzzy local rockers Goldpark, dropped a stellar re-working of her 2020 single “Twenty Something (All or Nothing),” and debuted her first new single since the LP, “Ribbon,” along with an accompanying live video earlier this summer.

No stranger to confessional, vulnerable, and earnest songwriting (something that hooked us with her debut EP, Jealous of Birds, and has only been honed across 2020’s Twenty Something, and last year’s Note to Self), Kennedy’s latest song, “Before I Have a Daughter,” which arrived last week, might just be her most raw and impactful work yet, showcasing the songwriter’s beautiful and heartfelt ability to channel her own personal experiences, stories, and musings and make them feel so accessible and whole.

Co-written with Lori McKenna, “Before I Have a Daughter” was inspired by Bre’s experiences building a relationship with her mother for the first time in twenty years, and how that journey and process and healing felt like such an important and cathartic step to take before someday having a daughter of her own. Like all of Kennedy’s songs, she manages to take this experience so uniquely hers, and channel it into universal feelings of complicated relationships, finding healing in adulthood, uncertainty about the future, and personal growth, all in ways so intimately relatable.

Along with the single, Bre also debuted a deeply affecting accompanying video, which begins with scenes of the singer spending time with her mother on a recent visit and going through photos from her childhood, before showcasing scenes of other families, and performance scenes of Kennedy accompanied by guitarist Austin Webb and pianist Jake Finch. Filmed and directed by Hannah Gray Hall, and featuring footage from Tabitha Turner, it’s one of our favorite videos the singer has ever released.

Here’s what Bre had to say about her latest:

“In the last few years, I have been building a relationship with my mother for the first time in my life. When I wrote this song I knew I wanted to incorporate that beautiful part of my healing with my mother and the one growing with her mother as well. Everyone’s family story is different and what is most important to me with mine is working towards healing and I feel very lucky I’ve been able to find that before I have a daughter. This video begins with my mother and I going through photos from my childhood… some I was seeing for the first time. It was important for me to shine a light on strong mothers and fathers and their beautiful family stories too.”

Watch “Before I Have a Daughter” below!