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Brandi Carlile
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Authentic. That's the first word that
springs to mind when you encounter Brandi Carlile. From her rootsy
bell-clear voice to the palpable emotion that seeps through every
song on her stunning debut album, everything about this
23-year-old from rural Washington state is the real deal. |
Deeply driven to be an artist, Carlile's
life-long love affair with performing began when her musician mother
brought her out onstage at the Northwest's version of the Grand Ole
Opry. Carlile sang Roseanne Cash's Tennessee Flat-Top Box. She
was 8.
Growing up in the isolated foothills of Ravensdale, 50 miles outside
of Seattle, Carlile turned to music for company. "Ravensdale wasn't a
town," she says. "We were the only house around for acres and acres.
Being in the middle of nowhere, it wasn't the kind of place you
brought friends back to, so I just hung around the woods and built
forts and played music with my brother and sister. That's all we did.
And we thought that's what everyone else in the world did, too."
During those years, Carlile taught herself to sing. "I locked myself
in my room when no one was home to see how loud and high I could sing,
and how long I could hold a note," she says. "I'm sure it sounded like
mating season, but I knew that's what it would take to develop a big,
powerful voice." She also figured out how to play the piano ("I wanted
to be like Elton John") and eventually guitar at age 17.
From then on, Carlile performed everywhere she could. She even took a
job as a back-up singer for a local Elvis impersonator, an experience
she credits with teaching her how to layer vocals and sing harmonies.
A few years later, Carlile began to book herself and her band (Seattle
natives and twin brothers Tim and Phil Hanseroth) at restaurants
around the city-the local chowder house, a popular sports bar and
grill, and at any wedding or birthday party that would hire her, just
so she could practice.
"I've never had a real job," she says. "I've insisted that I do
nothing but play music and not let my head go anywhere else. If that
means playing in a smoky bar for three hours, five nights a week,
that's fine. It's discipline. It teaches you how to grab your
audience, no matter who they are."
Carlile's determination and work ethic paid off in late 2004 when she
signed with Columbia Records, home to several of her favorite artists
including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Buckley, Leonard Cohen,
Janis Joplin, and James Taylor, whom she has shared a stage with. The
timeless quality of her debut album for Columbia, Brandi Carlile,
is proof of her intention to become a classic artist alongside her
labelmates.
The album is a showcase for Carlile's expressive voice, which can turn
from a tough, bluesy growl to a vulnerable, aching falsetto on a dime.
The catch in her throat before she launches into those alpine high
notes is reminiscent of her idol, country singer Patsy Cline.
"Patsy Cline had a really gutsy, powerful voice," she says. "I
identify with that. I've gone through all sorts of vocal phases, from
pop to blues to R&B, but no matter what I do, I just can't get the
country & western out of my voice."
Rather than fight it, Carlile makes good use of the country flavor by
juxtaposing it with dark, otherworldly melodies on songs like
Follow and Tragedy. Think of a female Roy Orbison or
Radiohead's Thom Yorke fronting a roots-rock band and you're not far
off. The contrast led Rolling Stone, which named her one of their 10
Artists to Watch in 2005, to declare: "Carlile's ethereal, melancholy
ballads have a spare heartache that reflects her love for old-school
country…but she loves new-school mopers like Radiohead and Jeff
Buckley just as much". Indeed, those artists' influence can be felt on
the simple, acoustic strummers Happy, Gone and
Tragedy. Other musical stand-outs include Throw It All Away
and Fall Apart Again.
The ten sublime gems on Brandi Carlile were recorded
sporadically throughout 2004 in Seattle, some at Carlile's home in
bucolic Maple Valley, Washington. "I live in a log cabin and the
ceilings are really high, so it sounds great," she says. "We rented a
Pro-tools set-up and put it smack in the middle of my living room."
Some of the unadorned production comes courtesy of indie-stalwart
producer John Goodmanson, who has worked with Sleater-Kinney and
Blonde Redhead, and the rest was driven by Carlile and the twins. "We
just went in and played the songs," she says. "It interrupted my whole
world for weeks, but we made some really good music."
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