Following their breakup in 2022, she premiered her new project, BRUCE, with 2025\u2019s Must Love Teeth<\/a>. Its first single, \u201cCherry,\u201d is less chipper. It\u2019s a Western runway strutter, dripping with sarcasm, as the singer details a foundational, fraught relationship with a purr.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy mother said don\u2019t call her mama\/ My mother said don\u2019t call her mommy,\u201d Fussell coos, over a smirking guitar line. \u201cMy mother told lies when the truth would do just fine\/ So now I don\u2019t call her nothing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was coming out of my mouth and I was like, \u2018Ew, who is this nasty bitch that said all this?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s BRUCE \u2013 not so much a character as it is a vehicle for Fussell to write as herself, fully, for the first time. Collaboration was paramount to Calliope, and the songwriter felt her most personal compositions should be saved for her solo music. Over vegan onion dip and bubbly waters, she explains: \u201cCalliope stuff was personal to me in a broad sense, and BRUCE is more personal to me in the, Ooh, I don\u2019t want my mom to listen to this kind of sense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Perfect Stranger\u00a0<\/p>\n Not a lot of people frequent the Continental Club at midnight on a Wednesday. Perfect.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fussell worked out the songs comprising Must Love Teeth during a weekly late-night residency at the South Congress staple, where an empty room worked to the anxious artist\u2019s advantage. Speaking to a stranger at a bar feels like entrapment \u2013 \u201cbut when you\u2019re onstage,\u201d she notes, \u201cthey fully can walk out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes me feel way more comfortable to be myself,\u201d Fussell says. \u201cIf people don\u2019t like it, they\u2019ll leave, and if they do like it, they\u2019ll stay. And that means I\u2019ve found some people that I resonate with and speak to in some way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Such is the basis of LP track three, \u201cPerfect Stranger\u201d: one explanation of many as to why, out of three 2025-2026 Austin Music Awards nominations, Fussell has won Best Vocalist (despite this publication once writing of her \u201coff-key whoops,\u201d<\/a> she points out). Raised by a stage mom in East Texas, she grew up singing Celine Dion at home, Patsy Cline at the nursing home, and all-state choir at school competitions before beginning her University of Texas matriculation as a vocal performance major.\u00a0<\/p>\n She left the \u201cmachine\u201d to avoid dulling her personal style, but still pulls out that classical training throughout \u201cPerfect Stranger,\u201d and Must Love Teeth as a whole. \u201cI need you to see me,\u201d she cries \u2013 part Angel Olsen, part Broadway baby \u2013 to those unknown observers, as the ballad\u2019s cinematic piano and strings build. Connection remains the artist\u2019s white whale, even as self-doubt has threatened it along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI had been putting off recording BRUCE or caring about BRUCE in any sort of way,\u201d Fussell shares. \u201cI just had been like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to care. I don\u2019t want to try to be a musician.\u2019 And so I was really afraid of: \u2018I\u2019m gonna record an album and release an album, and then what? I feel fucking bad when I don\u2019t succeed?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n She recorded it anyway with producer Jank Sinatra, who helmed her best friend Jazz Mills\u2019 \u201cfucking incredible\u201d 2020 album with Stephanie Hunt, Popecoke<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got this production style that is kind of unkempt,\u201d Fussell says of the artist, born Tim Crane. \u201cI just loved how unattached to rules and down to just fuck around and find out [he was].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Fucking around at Sinatra\u2019s home studio, the two filtered live drums into drum machines and built samples out of Fussell\u2019s old demos. She referenced late-Fifties vocal group the Fleetwoods; he brought up MF DOOM. Must Love Teeth thus arrived last July as an art-pop odyssey through strings and 808s, operatic vocals and synthesizers, booming bass and country-fried slide guitar.<\/p>\n Sinatra lauds Fussell as \u201csomebody with real artistic vision, and somebody who\u2019s not afraid to deviate from the norm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always drawn to artists that are doing something a little different, and she is that for sure, in spades,\u201d he drawls over the phone. His Oklahoma accent complements Fussell\u2019s Gulf Coast twang.\u00a0<\/p>\n Visions<\/p>\n Jazz Mills, also Fussell\u2019s manager and Free Lunch<\/a> co-founder, did more than connect artist and producer. When Must Love Teeth dropped, BRUCE marked the occasion by filming an elaborate performance of the album at Central Presbyterian Church. Much like the music, the idea appeared in Fussell\u2019s brain fully formed. She knew how to set the lighting. She knew she\u2019d open the show by walking down the aisle. She knew she\u2019d wear a cape and headpiece \u2013 one inspired by the Renaissance, but whose sheer white fabric in certain lights recalled Laura Palmer plastic.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m doing the thing where I care,\u201d she fretted to her manager. \u201cI don\u2019t want to want something. I don\u2019t want to have a vision and try to see it through and feel disappointed.\u201d Mills, of course, encouraged her to move forward.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my favorite things I say about Carrie all the time is that you could break both of Carrie\u2019s legs and she\u2019s still gonna get to the church on time,\u201d she tells me. \u201cShe has so much will in her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet, \u201cas unique as she is in her artistry,\u201d Mills continues, \u201cthere is something about her that is the same as every other brilliant musician or artist that I know, which is that they\u2019re very tortured.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have something incredibly invaluable to share and to give to others, and there\u2019s that part of them that believes: \u2018I don\u2019t know why I do this with my life.\u2019 Or: \u2018Maybe I don\u2019t even make good music.\u2019 \u2018Maybe I\u2019m a fraud.\u2019 \u2018I should do something else and nobody cares.\u2019 That self-doubt that creeps into all human beings, that creeps in in a very devastating way to artists.<\/p>\n \u201cSo for me, it\u2019s nice being able to be that person that is not encouraging Carrie simply out of niceties, but [because] I really believe in her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n At Mills\u2019 behest, Fussell gathered over 30 musicians, dancers, speakers, and production crew members to stage the concert film, nominated this year for Most Creative Event. Downtown, in a place of worship, five musicians stood behind Fussell in matching trench coats, while three additional, more flashily dressed backup singers sat in the pews, fanning themselves and playing with props, when not adding to the choir. Burlesque dancers stalked the walkway during \u201cCherry\u201d; a ballerina twirled during a vocal-forward interlude before late-album aria \u201cTrash Fire Singing Child.\u201d Fussell even threw herself a funeral, complete with a lavender casket, for the finale, \u201cKitty of the Year.\u201d They didn\u2019t do a single run-through before the taping.\u00a0<\/p>\n Real Things\u00a0<\/p>\n Fussell hates watching herself perform, but she shows me one moment from the concert film with glee.\u00a0<\/p>\n About halfway in, she sets up her looper pedal, plucks the guitar melody that cycles throughout \u201cYou\u2019re Only a God; You\u2019re Only a Man,\u201d and leaves the Central Presbyterian stage, reciting the track\u2019s quick-cadenced sing-song as she runs backstage and up some stairs. She reappears, to the audience\u2019s eyes, on a mezzanine, and begins to climb on top of the pews.\u00a0<\/p>\n And then she falls.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe had so much fun editing this,\u201d she laughs, rewinding the wipeout over and over. The team turned up the sound on the microphone to emphasize its clunk \u2013 though it also reveals that Fussell was still singing even as she hit the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHow could the most embarrassing thing be my favorite thing?\u201d Fussell asks, before answering her own question. \u201cI think people want to see someone fucking eat shit and pop up and figure it out.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople want to see real things,\u201d she continues. That\u2019s how she manages to get through this viewing. \u201cI forced myself to be like, \u2018Don\u2019t hate this just because it\u2019s vulnerable or embarrassing at times. Love that, because that\u2019s what makes it special and real.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Vulnerability is, undoubtedly, Fussell\u2019s gift. She shares with this (almost) perfect stranger her lowest memories, her most fractured relationships, but her honesty doesn\u2019t overwhelm. It just seems \u2013 there\u2019s that word again \u2013 real. She tells me she wants to make a long-form lyric video for Must Love Teeth, maybe release her demos. She recorded three BRUCE albums at once, by the way; she plans to release the next one sometime this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe world is fucking AI,\u201d she stresses. The least we can do is live authentically.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWith Calliope, we were always trying to transport people to another place \u2013 sort of this idealistic, fantastical situation,\u201d Fussell explains. \u201cAnd I think with BRUCE, we\u2019re trying to see where we are and make that fantastical. Like, I am here, and this is hard, or this is ugly, or this is good. I\u2019m here, and I am gonna make it something I love.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In BRUCE\u2019s world, reality provides its own romance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n This article appears in February 27 \u2022 2026<\/a> and 2026 Austin Music Awards Issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n A note to readers:\u00a0Bold and uncensored,\u00a0The Austin Chronicle\u00a0has been Austin\u2019s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community\u2019s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cRyan [Brewer], our bass player, would always be like, \u2018You are always in a contest with yourself to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72526,132,134,133,72528,72575,72576,72577],"class_list":{"0":"post-180925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-2025-2026-austin-music-awards","9":"tag-austin","10":"tag-austin-headlines","11":"tag-austin-news","12":"tag-bruce","13":"tag-carrie-fussell","14":"tag-jank-sinatra","15":"tag-jazz-mills"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AMA-bruce-quote.png\")
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Credit: David Brendan Hall<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AMA-star-only.png\")
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