by Tina WhelskiBrandi Carlile invokes the wisdom of the mountains on her self-titled debut album. Alone in her cabin outside of Seattle with her dog, cat, horse and acoustic guitar, Carlile found isolation and natural beauty a breeding ground for inspiration and let nature run its course. Her honeyed vocals warble with heartache and yearning throughout the introspective collection of folk-rock arrangements.
While Carlile’s roots are firmly country, it’s actually pop that incited her early as a lyricist.
“I ‘loved’ Elton John and Bernie Taupin,” says Carlile. “I thought that they were just the two most talented people on the face of the Earth. Bernie Taupin’s the reason I started writing lyrics. See, the Northwest Grand Ol’ Opry where I was singing [as a child through her teenage years] was really my only exposure to music cause I lived out in the woods. So it was always country music. One day they let this guy come on and sing Elton John songs. He sang ‘Skyline Pigeon’ and ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.’ That just freaked me out. It was my first exposure to pop music. I went and I got Yellow Brick Road, the first album I ever owned. I just fell in love with the stories and the music and the harmonies and the singing…I cut the pictures out of the record sleeves and hung them all over my wall. So yeah, I had Bernie Taupin on my wall from the time I was about twelve years old.”
Like her heroes, Carlile enjoys collaboration, and often shared songwriting on Brandi Carlile with her band “the Twins” (Tim and Phil Hanseroth) as she calls them. Though she says you can always tell which tracks she initiated.
“It’s kind of funny,” says Carlile. “You can tell the songs on the record that are my songs lyrically because I tend to write from a place of discontentment. I write about things I’m puzzled about or I’m worried about or the things that upset me because that’s how I communicate with myself. That’s how I get those feelings out. I don’t tend to write really happy songs or love songs... ‘In My Own Eyes’ is a song about being self-conscious and wondering how other people see me. ‘Happy’ is about a childhood friendship that I moved on past, which I never thought that I would. It’s your best friend when you’re a kid and you think you’re always going to be best friends and you’d be maid of honor at each others’ weddings, you know what I mean? But then you go your separate ways…‘Closer To You’ is about our first tour. I had been playing music for a long time and working hard, but one thing I didn’t get to see very much of was the rest of the country. I kind of wrote that song looking out the windows of the van—the rows of hay that last for 800 yards…‘Tragedy’ is my song. (laughs) All my songs are, I don’t know? I suppose they’re not super positive are they?”
Brandi Carlile performs at Mercury Lounge Feb 13.
Adapted from an article originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 2/8/06.
Brandi Carlile performing "Fall Apart Again."
While Carlile’s roots are firmly country, it’s actually pop that incited her early as a lyricist.
“I ‘loved’ Elton John and Bernie Taupin,” says Carlile. “I thought that they were just the two most talented people on the face of the Earth. Bernie Taupin’s the reason I started writing lyrics. See, the Northwest Grand Ol’ Opry where I was singing [as a child through her teenage years] was really my only exposure to music cause I lived out in the woods. So it was always country music. One day they let this guy come on and sing Elton John songs. He sang ‘Skyline Pigeon’ and ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.’ That just freaked me out. It was my first exposure to pop music. I went and I got Yellow Brick Road, the first album I ever owned. I just fell in love with the stories and the music and the harmonies and the singing…I cut the pictures out of the record sleeves and hung them all over my wall. So yeah, I had Bernie Taupin on my wall from the time I was about twelve years old.”
Like her heroes, Carlile enjoys collaboration, and often shared songwriting on Brandi Carlile with her band “the Twins” (Tim and Phil Hanseroth) as she calls them. Though she says you can always tell which tracks she initiated.
“It’s kind of funny,” says Carlile. “You can tell the songs on the record that are my songs lyrically because I tend to write from a place of discontentment. I write about things I’m puzzled about or I’m worried about or the things that upset me because that’s how I communicate with myself. That’s how I get those feelings out. I don’t tend to write really happy songs or love songs... ‘In My Own Eyes’ is a song about being self-conscious and wondering how other people see me. ‘Happy’ is about a childhood friendship that I moved on past, which I never thought that I would. It’s your best friend when you’re a kid and you think you’re always going to be best friends and you’d be maid of honor at each others’ weddings, you know what I mean? But then you go your separate ways…‘Closer To You’ is about our first tour. I had been playing music for a long time and working hard, but one thing I didn’t get to see very much of was the rest of the country. I kind of wrote that song looking out the windows of the van—the rows of hay that last for 800 yards…‘Tragedy’ is my song. (laughs) All my songs are, I don’t know? I suppose they’re not super positive are they?”
Brandi Carlile performs at Mercury Lounge Feb 13.
Adapted from an article originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 2/8/06.
Brandi Carlile performing "Fall Apart Again."
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