The Band
Originally, she and her band—twin brothers Tim and Phil Hanseroth, cellist Josh Neumann, and drummer Steven Nistor— were going to play a quiet acoustic listening party for her hometown crowd. As Carlile explains at the start of the show, "We were gonna come out and sit on a couch and play songs from our new record, tell stories about the recording process and working with T Bone Burnett." The show, however, sold out in under an hour, so Carlile and company added a second performance to the calendar for later the same night.That show also sold out in under an hour.
If you're still unfamiliar with the extraordinary voice and tight musicianship that makes up Brandi Carlile (the woman and the band by the same name), chances are it won't be long until you encounter her new radio single, the title track from her new CD The Story. If she's coming through your town, though, just go to the show. Like most artists, Carlile and the band are better live than on record, which is saying a lot given that The Story is an such excellent disc.
In Her Element
On this particular evening, Carlile is in her element. Flanked to the left and right by her twin sidekicks, a local cellist ("He's so nervous," she keeps announcing, with a smile, to taunt him) and new drummer in the rear, Carlile can look out and see her grandmother and the twins' mom sitting in the front row.When she takes the stage by herself at 8 PM on the dot, she waves at the crowd, saying "Hello everybody. Hi Grandma."
Maybe it's because this is a hometown crowd filled with family, friends, and fans who've watched her grow up onstage, or maybe it's indicative of her slow but steady ascent to alt.country stardom, but the audience is in her pocket from the moment she opens her mouth. Even the awkward applause that follows each sample track from her new CD, as it plays over the speakers, is genuine and heartfelt.
Finally, the band emerges, takes to their instruments, and waltzes right into the hearts of the sold-out crowd. They kick off the show with a song from Brandi's self-titled CD, "What Can I Say?" But they waste no time introducing the audience to songs from The Story new album, which won't come out for four more days.
The Story
In fact, they pull out six tunes from the album, including the title track, which serves as the transitional tune before the encore. This week, Carlile announces, the TV show Grey's Anatomy will feature the video for "The Story" as they pair it with a montage of scenes from the season. "It's a pretty big deal," she admits, and the crowd enthusiastically agrees.If Carlile's rise in popularity hadn't already hit her, it seems to be sinking in now, as she talks about a time "not too long ago" when she had to make announcements from the stage to the effect of, "buy one, get a plate of fish sticks for free." Likely there are plenty of members of the audience who remember those days, as they respond by shouting phrases like, "We love you, homegrown Brandi," etc. At one point a man in the back whistles loud, and she spins around to shoot a dimply smile and a look of, "oh come on."
Between songs, there is a prevailing sense that the crowd is watching their little sister onstage; but as soon as she breaks into another song, the teasing disappears to make way for silent awe. Carlile and her band have got it.
As is customary for Carlile and crew, they close the show with a cover song you won't generally hear a woman singing. This time around, the tune is Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," and Carlile pulls it off with all the playful regret Cash intended, proving once and for all that she knows what she does best, and won't stop until everyone else does, too.
