How's My Living? » brandi carlile

May in Review

Sarah — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 15:57:15 +0000

May was a month for revisiting old favorites. Not too many new discoveries this month, but a lot of good songs got played around here nonetheless.

Newport Folk Festival: July 30 – August 1

Sarah — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:50:36 +0000

You can tell that summer is rapidly approaching, given the number of festival line-ups that are tumbling in. The Newport Folk Festival, in (where else) Newport, Rhode Island, has announced its lineup for its 2010 festival.

Artists appearing include:

AA Bondy, Andrew Bird (in his only summer appearance in the US), Ben Solle and Daniel Martin Moore, Brandi Carlile, Calexico, Corey Chisel & the Wandering Sons, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, John Prine, Justin Townes Earle, Nneka, O’Death, Punch Brothers (with Chris Thile), Richie Havens, Sarah Jarosz, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers, Tao Seeger, The Avett Brothers, The Felice Brothers, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The Swell Season, and Yim Yames, among others.

Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday.

BRB, trying to figure out how to get to Rhode Island! WTF, summer, you are not helping me tame my desire to travel long distances for music.

Wow, That’s a Good Song: Brandi Carlile, “That Year”

Sarah — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:41:55 +0000

A beautiful video for a devastating song. Ok, I could have done without the giant CGI bee flying across the screen. But otherwise, the video is very serene, just Brandi and a guitar and nature blooming around her.

Must have have been New Year’s
No one invited you, took things too far
But I missed you and your antics
You were lonesome and blue-eyed
And so special to us

You could have taken a long break
Instead of a long drop from a high place
Ten years I never spoke your name
Now it feels good to say it
Your’re my friend again

Brandi has mentioned that this song is about a friend of hers who committed suicide in high school; for the longest time, she hated him for it, but over the years, she’s come to terms with it, and as she says, it’s good to say that he’s her friend again. The song’s clearly an emotional one for Brandi, but so beautiful to hear her perform it.

Brandi Carlie: Official Website | MySpace | Facebook | Store

Album Review: Brandi Carlile, “XOBC EP”

Sarah — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:18:20 +0000

Don’t let this EP’s status as a Valentine’s Day release fool you into think that it is some sappy collection of love tunes to which Brandi Carlile just happened to lend her voice. That’s not the case at all; sure, the songs have a bit of a lovey bent, but they’re pure Brandi Carlile, country roots and all.

The release is short — just five tracks, clocking in at just over 15 minutes — and only three of the tracks are original songs by Carlile (with her chief collaborators, Phil and Tim Hanseroth). The other two are delightfully executed cover songs: “All You Need is Love”, the Beatles classic, and “Heaven”, originally by Bryan Adams.

While most people fall into the school of belief that no one can cover the Beatles, I’ll admit that I’m fairly indifferent to Beatles covers. If it sounds good, chances are that I’ll like it. On XOBC, Carlile stays close enough to the original version of “All You Need is Love” so as to not be a jarring cover, but still makes it her own with her always warm and emotive voice.

Carlile’s work is fairly straight forward; the song title tells you what you’re going to get.”Love Songs”, the first original track, is a slow piano-driven ballad which fits in neatly after the Beatles’ cover, with its 60s-esque harmonies at the chorus. ”Way to You” and “Us Again” are both closer to Brandi’s more country roots, with some fabulous guitar and banjo work underneath the vocals. Both of these sound like the would have been right at home on Give Up the Ghost, with its country feel.

But for me, the highlight is actually the stripped down cover of “Heaven” that Carlile offers up as the closing track for the album. If you’re not familiar with Bryan Adams’ original power ballad from the 80s, you may know the song from when it was reinvented as a dance track in 2002. This is, of course, the precise opposite of the thumping dance hall beats, as it’s been stripped down to just Carlile’s powerful voice and a guitar for a majority of the song.

XOBC EP is available now for purchase, exclusively on iTunes.

Brandi Carlie: Official Website | MySpace | Facebook | Store

Lilith Fair announces 2010 lineup

Sarah — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:54:00 +0000

In even more awesome festival news, Lilith Fair has announced its lineup for the 2010 revival of the tour, and it’s nothing short of amazing. Named acts so far span all different genres, age groups, and demographics.

The lineup as it currently stands includes Brandi Carlile, Indigo Girls, Mary J. Blige, Metric, Sheryl Crow, Tegan and Sara, A Fine Frenzy, Butterfly Boucher, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Ingrid Michaelson, Janelle Monae, Tara MacLean, The Weepies, Vedera, and Zee Avi, and, of course, tour founder Sarah McLachlan. There are, of course, many more listed on the website, and it seems like more artists are yet to be announced.

All I can say is wow. Heck with the tough decision-making of Lollapalooza; I’m pretty sure that I’m going to have no idea how to choose between competing sets at this show.

No tour dates have been set yet, and no news on tickets, but I’m hoping that will be coming soon.

Concert Review: Brandi Carlile with Angel Taylor, House of Blues

Sarah — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:54:18 +0000

This week’s spur of the moment concert-attending decision was to grab tickets to the Brandi Carlile show at the House of Blues. I’d always managed to miss her when she’s come through Chicago in the past, and I’ve always been curious about the House of Blues, so hey, why not. And, of course, I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.

Photo from angeltayloronline.com

The opening act was Angel Taylor, a 21-year old singer-songwriter from southern California. For someone so young, she has a huge voice. Her voice reminded me a lot of Adele and Duffy, young women who are sort of a throwback to another time and place, and comparisons to Alicia Keys are probably inevitable, though well deserved. Switching between piano and guitar, she sung about those universal experiences: bad relationships, broken hearts, and love despite it all. Keep an eye on her, because between her songwriting and her voice, she should start turning heads soon. She had an easy, humorous patter with the audience, sometimes seeming a little surprised by the warm reception she received. Angel even took the time to lead the audience in singing happy birthday to a fan up in the balcony. Songs from her debut album, Love Travels, included “Epiphany”, “Spinning Wheel”, and “It’s Easy”. She also threw in two awesome covers: “Womanizer” – and this is where I admit that I have a huge soft spot for covers of Britney songs – and Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”. Her closing song – I thought it was “Not Even Human”, but the version online sounds different than what she sang – was particularly moving, with the repeated line of “girls have fragile hearts so don’t break them”.

Brandi Carlile’s set started out with the full band gathering around one microphone, one of the twins (Tim or Phil Hanseroth) on ukulele, singing an a capella version of “Oh Dear”, from her upcoming album, Give Up the Ghost. It’s moments like that where you know that the performer you’re seeing is solid. It’s one thing to perform with a band, your voice layered under guitars and drums, but to perform completely exposed like that, well, it’s not something that everyone can get away with. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve never seen her live before, but have heard a lot of live recordings, so I knew she was good live, but I didn’t know just how good. Brandi and company put on an amazing show – tons of energy and charisma, lots of interaction with the audience. The audience was 100% into the show from start to finish. Lots of enthusiastic cheering, shouting, singing along. This was a crowd who loved everything about Brandi and it showed.

Photo by Anthony St. James, from brandicarlile.com

Perhaps one of the most beautiful moments of the evening, highlighting both what a stellar performer Brandi is as well as how much the audience loved her, was when she stepped out from behind the microphone to the very front edge of the stage and waited for the house to get quiet. Eventually – amazingly – the room was silent as Brandi told the audience that she wanted to perform “Dying Day”, a song from her upcoming album, completely unplugged – no microphones, no amplifiers, just her voice and the guitar. The performance was spectacular, and a true show of just how strong of a singer she is. I was only a few people deep on the main floor, but I have no doubt that her voice carried to the back and top of the house. Standing right up front, though, it was almost like she was singing right to you, a private little concert in the midst of 1000+ other people. She followed up that song with three more acoustic renditions of new songs before, as promised, bringing the rock back.

From the new album, songs included “Dreams”, “I Will”, “Pride and Joy” (including some great rocking out on the cello, from Josh Neumann), and “Before it Breaks”. Previously released songs included “Late Morning Lullaby”, “The Story”, “Turpentine” (including a three-part harmony audience sing-along), “Hiding My Heart” (the hidden track from The Story), “Have You Ever”, and “Happy”, which she said was about a friend she had as a teenager who she fell out of contact with. She wrote the song about her and put it on her first album, and the friend heard it and got back in touch with her.

The encore set started out with an absolutely insane cover of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”, but eventually took a slower turn in what she referred to as the bipolar section of the show. She closed with “That Year”, a song from the new album about a friend who committed suicide when they were teenagers, and then into Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, both solo acoustic. Both very beautiful, moving songs, and a fitting end to a very high-energy concert.

Angel Taylor’s debut album, Love Travels, was released September 22 and is out now in stores and on iTunes.
Brandi Carlile’s third full length album, Give Up the Ghost, will be released October 4 and is available for preorder now.

This Week in Great Music – 9/20 – 9/27

Sarah — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:28:59 +0000

There’s some interesting stuff going on this week, especially on Friday. With shows by Sunny Day Real Estate and Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, I feel like the mid-90s are coming back to haunt me. And who would have ever dreamed of a day when Willie Nelson would open for Dave Matthews?

Monday, September 21
Andrew Bird, Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago. 6 pm, free with magical tickets you had to win from WXRT or the Art Institute.
Mehter Ottoman Turkish Military Band, Pritzker Pavillion at Millennium Park. 6:30 pm, free. Part of the World Music Festival.

Tuesday, September 22
Nothing really caught my eye today. Hopefully you’ll have better luck!

Wednesday, September 23
Ani DiFranco, the Vic. 7:30 pm, $41.
Phoenix, the Aragon. 7:30 pm, $21.
Snehasish Mozumder and Subrata Bhattacharya, Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington). 7 pm, free. Part of the World Music Festival.
Vlada Tomova’s Balkan Tales, Hermann D. Conaway Multicultural Center at Columbia College (1104 S. Wabash). 7 pm, free. Part of the World Music Festival.

Thursday, September 24
Sunny Day Real Estate, Metro. 8 pm, sold out.
One World Under One Roof (featuring nine artists from the World Music Festival), Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington). 6:30 pm, free.
Joshua Radin, House of Blues. 7 pm, $17.50-20.

Friday, September 25
Owl City, with Kate Havnevik and Unicorn Kid, Metro. 7:30 pm, $14-16.
Brandi Carlile with Angel Taylor, House of Blues. 7:30 pm, $21-23.
The Weakerthans, Bottom Lounge (1375 W Lake). 8 pm, $17-20.
Son Volt with Sera Cahoone, the Vic. 8 pm, $21-25.
Chicken Fat Klezmer Orchestra, Bill’s Blues Bar (1029 Davis St., Evanston). 5:30 pm, free.
Miike Snow and Jack Penate, Empty Bottle. 7:30 pm and 10:30 pm, $12.
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Logan Square Auditorium (2539 N. Kedzie Ave.). 8 pm, $15.
Bell X1, Double Door. 9 pm, $15.
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, The Kinetic Playground (1113 W. Lawrence). 9 pm, $15-20.
Scout Niblett, Subterranean (2011 W. North Ave). 9:30 pm, $12.

Saturday, September 26
Dave Matthews Band with Willie Nelson and family, First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre (19100 Ridgeland Ave., Tinley Park). 7:30 pm, $40-75.
Brandi Carlile with Angel Taylor, House of Blues. 7:30 pm, $21-23.

Sunday, September 27
Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, Wentz Concert Hall at North Central College (171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville). 6 pm, $45-60.