The Day Is Brave is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Brendan James. It was released on June 3, 2008. The album is an extension of his previous four-song EP The Ballroom Break In which released in 2007. The Album has received rave reviews from the media and had some of its songs featured on various television shows. With the success of his debut, Entertainment Weekly named Brendan James "Guys on the Rise: 8 rising singer-songwriters" and American singer-songwriter Carly Simon described Brendan James as "A voice that can change the world". Background "It's just been a journey for me since I was 19, and just practicing for hours and hours. And to really decide that I want to do this has taken a lot of work. The title really speaks about the journey, because it wasn’t easy." -Brendan James In 2007, when paralyzed Iraq War veteran Tomas Young happened across Brendan's music on iTunes. Tomas handpicked Brendan's ballad "Hero's Song" —a piano-driven anthem about war from a soldier's perspective—to appear, alongside tracks by Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen, on the Eddie Vedder's soundtrack Body of War: Songs that Inspired an Iraq War Veteran, a documentary about Tomas's experience. His process starts at the piano where he tries to find melodic ideas that inspire him, which slowly develop to how the song sounds to him and what the tone makes him feel until the topic follows, lyrics coming last. As many people have been, Tomas Young, the former soldier behind the original Body of War soundtrack was drawn to the song and its emotional message. Influence and comparison Brendan started songwriting the summer between his Freshman and Second year at University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, but rather than the same mountains that surrounded one of his greatest influences, James Taylor, it was a music teacher from his home town in Derry, New Hampshire that started him on his path. "Influenced by the understated simplicity of the Carly Simon, James Taylor, and Carole King records he grew up with, James knew he wanted his debut to sound natural and unaffected" -Monsters and Critics "...he was also in good musical company in The Big Apple. It is the famed locale for singer songwriters, from Neil Diamond, Paul Simon and Carly Simon herself, all emerged from that city." -She Knows Entertainment "With his songs based more around the lyrics and