Brandi Carlile

Any doubts about a memoir written by someone who hadn’t turned forty were dispelled in the twenty hours that Brandi Carlile’s warm, engaging voice infiltrated my ears with her story.
An aging boomer who these days listens to more chamber music than rock, I was late to the party when it came to this singer. I try to keep up by watching Later with Jools Holland. During the lockdown, he experimented with non-live formats. One was a series of Zooms with a musician who selected videos of old show more Later performances. One week’s guest was Elton John, one of whose picks was a very young Brandi Carlile singing “The Story.” Why have I never heard this, was my enthused reaction. I quickly tried to catch up, egged on by a favorite niece who is a fan.
This book is another product of the lockdown. Rona came to town just as Carlile was about to launch to superstardom: those roughly two years at the top of the pyramid when everyone knows your name and “there’s no time to think” (as Dylan sang). Think Beatles 1964-65, Joni Mitchell 1971-72, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Elton John—the list goes on.
Well, Carlile was on the cusp of that mixed blessing/curse. She was on a roll: five Grammys, the live recreation of Mitchell’s Blue, her curated all-female Saturday evening, main stage Newport show, “Eagle When She Flies.” Then instead of taking to the stratosphere, her eagle was grounded.
Like many musicians, she adapted, finding a way to connect with her audience via the internet with living room concerts, deciding to worry about an income stream later.
And she finished this book. As it turned out, the arc was perfect. The rags-to-riches, threshold-of-superstardom success story is the penultimate chapter. The final chapter is back on the ground, digging a drainage ditch for her cabin.
A highlight of this audiobook is that Carlile ends each chapter with one or two unplugged songs. Then, a bonus chapter at the end reprises them. Hearing them a second time, with the whole story in mind, they cohere and reveal more profound meaning.
Audio won’t replace print as my prime way to consume books, but in this case, audio was like a luxury upgrade. show less

Singer and songwriter Brandi Carlile's memoir of her childhood and her life in music and on stage (which began in childhood). Sometimes maybe a little uneven but always compelling, the memoir is best when Carlile discusses her childhood anxiety (she provides some of the best descriptions of being an anxious child I've ever come across), her experiences as a lesbian, and her attempts to understand and practice forgiveness. The parts that are specifically about being a musician, making albums, show more and meeting and working with other (some mega famous) musicians are also fascinating and well done--though the strictly personal stuff is what shone the most for me. Recommended. show less

Full disclosure: I have been a Brandi Carlile fan for a number of years, kicked up a notch in the last few years by the group's "By The Way, I Forgive You" album; the album from her side project with Amanda Shires, Natalie Hemby, and Maren Morris: The Highwomen; her stunning performance of her incredible song, The Joke, on the Grammy Awards in 2019; and her oh-so-welcome musical performances shared via Facebook during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. In other words, I already had a show more favorable bias toward this memoir. But I did not know all that much about Ms. Carlile personally other than that she and her wife, Catherine, have two young daughters.

This memoir painted a fresh and honest and even somewhat dorky (like me!!!) portrait of the artist as a still-to-me young musician: at once surprising and full of the expected moments in the trajectory of a star of Ms. Carlile's caliber--her unabashed thrill when she performed on stage the first time as a child in her native Washington (state); her experimentation with different genres outside the Western Grand Old Opry setting in which she first cut her musical chops; the years of scrimping and cobbling together equipment and resources to continue to put herself in front of a live audience; issues with drinking and drugs (although in the latter case, it was a combination of steroids for her damaged voice and Xanax to help her sleep in the wake of the effect of the steroids). But she also had other obstacles to overcome: being gay in a Baptist family; being gay in a largely anti-gay musical genre; being a woman in a decidedly male-centric musical genre; and her own self-doubt. On the other hand, she boldly contacted and approached music industry people and other celebrities--Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Barack Obama, to name a few--some of whom became friends and mentors; and she has been extremely generous with others, including Tanya Tucker, whose comeback album she produced and which earned Ms. Tucker her first Grammy--when she was in her sixties.

This memoir is also partly a love story written by Ms. Carlile to those people who make up her family--blood or otherwise: her parents, brother, sister; grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins; her wife and daughters; and her band mates, twins Phil and Tim Hanseroth, and their wives and children, all of whom live on a large tract of land owned by Ms. Carlile that contains the cabin she herself built about twenty years ago. And probably the most surprising aspect of the story of Brandi Carlile is her deep spirituality in the face of a Baptist community--and especially its pastor--who rejected her in a crushing way during her teenage years. In fact, in the title track of her Grammy winning "By the Way, I Forgive You," she publicly forgave the pastor who humiliated her. I think Ms. Carlile herself would be probably be equally thrilled and embarrassed by this comment: If you are looking for examples of grace in this world, look no further than Ms. Carlile's memoir. show less

I'll admit. I'm not particularly familiar with the author. But it's queer and it fits a prompt for a reading challenging I'm doing so I thought, "why not?" since the blurb made it sound like this would cover some interesting topics.

Overall, I ended up enjoying this more than I thought I would (memoirs about a random person (to me - I'm aware she's well known)) miss more often than they hit. I really enjoyed the parts about her personal life, especially her childhood and struggles and how she show more tried to overcome them and become stronger. I didn't care as much about her musical connections, but I'm also not particularly interested in the music world and I think those who are will enjoy these stories more than I did. There was more of this towards the end which meant I started enjoying the memoir less than I did at the start. I wish it had continued in that vein, but I guess it makes sense for a musician to focus on their musical career so I can't really complain about the shift that much. But overall, I don't regret reading this one! The author seems like an interesting person. show less