About Brian
“Brian writes with a particular vividness, in a voice that is flexible and carries with it a range of expression. There is a wonderful surface texture to all his poetry. It is not the kind of poetry you read and ask ‘what does that mean?’ You understand it, but at the same time it has depth. So if you are willing you can sink down into the poem and see what is at the bottom of his mind; and, what is at the bottom of your mind, too.”
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-- Richard Modiano, Executive Director, Beyond Baroque Literary Center
Brian Michael Tracy was born, raised and educated in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his BA from Stonehill College and his Master’s Degree from the Harvard University School of Design. His work has appeared in The Wallace Stevens Journal, Plainsongs, California Quarterly, Depth Insights, Yogi Times, and on spoken word radio programs throughout the United States and Canada including stations KPFK in Los Angeles and CIUT in Toronto.
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Tracy is the author of three books of poetry Driving With Dante (Conflux Press 2007), The Distance Between Shores (Conflux Press 2009), and Opaque Traveler: A Dream Sequence in Verse (Tebot Bach 2012). He has also released three critically acclaimed CD’s of music and poetry, Midnight Tea (2007), Blackbird Ballads (2009), and The Mystical Prism of Being (2016).
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Brian has performed his poetry at a variety of venues throughout California including the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Beyond Baroque, the Ruskin Art Club, the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara and the West Hollywood Book Fair. He served on the Board of Directors and was a member of the Executive Committee for Tebot Bach, a non-profit poetry foundation based in Southern California from 2009 through 2011.
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On February 14, 2021 Brian will be releasing his debut album of original songs entitled Drinking My Tomorrows. Veteran music journalist Bruce Fessier writes about the album "Brian Michael Tracy, a poet-singer-songwriter from Idyllwild, Calif., has penned an excellent batch of Gram Parsons-influenced country narratives packaged into a clean, austere sound guided by producer Kenneth Gibson. Tracy’s stellar studio band features “jazzgrass” pioneer Barnaby Finch on piano and Marty Rifkin on pedal steel guitar, an instrument he previously showcased while touring with Bruce Springsteen in support of the Boss’s contagious 2006 Pete Seeger tribute, “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.” But the songs at their core could be added to the canon of recent recordings by the likes of Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and Hayes Carll.”