Matraca Berg (born February 3, 1964 in Nashville, Tennessee) is a country music singer-songwriter who first came into the public eye by writing songs for other people. Matraca released her own debut album Lying to the Moon in 1990. The album was met with critical praise but was not a commercial success.
Matraca continued to build her resume by writing for others, and in 1994 released her second album At the Speed of Grace, another critically appraised album but commercially unsuccessful.
1997 was a big year for Matraca. Matraca wrote " Strawberry Wine" which was given to artist Deana Carter to record. The song was an instant smash and became Matrac's most well known and successful song to date. " Strawberry Wine" gave Matraca great success at the won the CMA (Country Music awards) "Song of the Year" award in 1997. Also in 1997, Matraca released her most successful album Sunday morning to Saturday Night. This album includes her single "Back When We Were Beautiful", a song Matraca performed on the 1997 CMA's for which she received a standing ovation. In 1999, Matraca released a compilation album entitled Lying to the Moon & Other Stories.
Matraca continues to be a prolific and well respected country songwriter. She lives in Nashville with Jeff Hanna, a member of the country Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Matraca is her real given name, not a stage name.
Trisha Yearwood is a big Matraca fan and covered "Matraca's "Lying to the Moon" on her own album " The Song Remembers When".
Matraca has recorded several albums she opted not to release. Instead she gave the songs on those albums to other artists to record.
Notable songs Matraca has written for others include: "Wild Angels" Martina McBride, "Hey Cinderella" Suzy Bogguss, "XXs And OOS", "Wrong Side Of Memphis", "Everybody Knows"; Trisha Yearwood, "Calico Plains"; Pam Tillis, "We Danced Anyway"; Deana Carter, and "If I Fall You're Going Down With Me"; The Dixie Chicks. This United States biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This article on a singer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
