Something crazy happens just three minutes into Brandi Carlile's new classic The Story from 2007. Her vocals crack to an almost unheard of degree, it's as if the whole house of cards is finally allowed to fall over right there, in our hearing. All the emotions are ripped out of the otherwise strong and self-confident singer, who now stands stripped and left behind, while the fragility fades and the guitars gently fade out. Believe us, only a fool leaves The Story untouched.

But it's all a surprising survival to be in the company of Brandi Carlile. The 43-year-old singer, songwriter and producer is a musical force of nature, a tornado that has swept across country, folk and Americana in recent decades.

With vocals that are alternately vulnerable like Dolly Parton's and powerful like Alanis Morisette's, Brandi Carlile can sing the socks off anyone she meets. Even in the company of the greats like Elton John, Hozier, Miley Cyrus, Marcus Mumford and Sam Smith, she seems to steal the spotlight, unconsciously but nonetheless indisputably. It's not Brandi Carlile who gets to sing on the stars' songs. It's the stars who get to sing with Brandi Carlile.

Brandi Carlile's path to the top of Americana, country, folk pop or whatever else we should call the box we stubbornly try to place her songs in, began in Washington state in the northwestern United States twenty years ago, where she quickly made her mark as a strong new voice on the American Americana scene with her debut album Brandi Carlile.

In 2007, the breakthrough comes with The Story, where not least the aforementioned title track sends Brandi Carlile into the highest echelons of the country and Americana scene, where she takes on a natural role as a rallying point for other of music's strongest women. She has since released five solo albums, most recently InThese Silent Days from 2021, which was described by Entertainment Weekly's reviewer as follows:

"Seven albums in, Carlile has long since proven herself constitutionally incapable of making a bad record. She's not about to start now.”

But the story of Brandi Carlile is not just about her songs, or her eleven Grammy Awards, her sexuality, or her tireless charity work with her partner and spouse Catherine Carlile. It is just as much about the enormous impact she continues to make on the people she meets along the way.