Credit Sara Bareilles' career to a 'Love Song' - Aug. 25

photo Sara Bareilles

IF YOU GO• What: Sara Bareilles in concert, with Harper Blynn.• When: 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 25; doors open at 7 p.m.• Where: Track 29, 1400 Market St.• Admission: $25 in advance, $28 day of show• Phone: 423-521-2929• Website: www.track29.co• Note: All-ages show, but anyone under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Valid photo ID required for anyone 18 and older.

Chattanooga is Day 3 on Sara Bareilles' monthlong, 20-city tour, which already includes three sold-out dates and venues as varied as the Ryman and Red Rocks.

Sunday, Aug. 25, she will perform at Track 29, introducing songs from "The Blessed Unrest," released in July, and reminiscing with songs from her two previous major-label albums, both of which were Grammy-nominated.

Bareilles' breakthrough album was 2007's "Little Voice." Powered by lead single "Love Song," the album went on to sell more than 1 million copies and earn her Grammy nods for Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

She followed up in 2010 with "Kaleidoscope Heart," which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. The platinum-selling album yielded the hit single "King of Anything," which earned Bareilles another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Want to know more?

Here are five things you may not have heard about the artist, gleaned from various websites.

• 1. Her breakthrough hit, "Love Song," was written in response to her record label, Epic, requesting she write a marketable love song. Marketable? Yes. Romantic? No. Its rebellious chorus says, in part: "I'm not gonna write you a love song, 'cause you asked for it, 'cause you need one ..."

• 2. In 2011 Bareilles joined the judges panel on the hit NBC show "The Sing-Off." Her 2012 "Once Upon a Time" EP was produced by fellow judge Ben Folds.

• 3. Bareilles was the opening act for country duo Sugarland at the Indiana State Fair in 2011, when wind gusts preceding a storm caused the stage to collapse, killing five concertgoers and injuring dozens of others. In a statement later, Bareilles said the accident "felt like a bad dream. The weather changed in a matter of minutes, and the stage collapsed in a matter of seconds. ..."

• 4. In early 2012, Bareilles released a documentary called "A Trace of the Sun: Volunteering in Japan" that chronicled her work with All Hands Volunteer in the coastal city of Ofunato after the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

• 5. "Brave," the lead single on new album "The Blessed Unrest," was inspired by a friend's struggle to come out as gay. Its lyrics include this passage: "Maybe there's a way out of the cage where you live / Maybe one of these days you can let the light in / Show me how big your brave is." Billboard reviewer Jason Lipshutz describes it as Bareilles' "most ebullient radio offering to date, with unchecked passion spilling into her words on the commanding chorus."

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