Artist:Brandi Carlile
Venue:The Sage
Town:Newastle
This show was one of the first to kick of the Sage Gateshead and The Jumpin' Hot Club's third consecutive Americana Festival weekend.
Support came from Foy Vance, of whom I had heard good things. I think perhaps I just didn't 'get' his music as lots of people in the audience seemed to enjoy his set - unfortunately I wasn't one of them. I did enjoy a song he said he had just written that day - it was apparently the reason he was late - about his daughter. This proved to me he can write and sing gut wrenching lyrics as well as the somewhat strange ones which comprised much of his set. I have to admit to thoroughly enjoying Foy's sense of humour - I think he'd be a great stand up comedian! At one point he was making conch shell type noises into the hole of his guitar which I found intriguing, if a little bizarre. Then he sprinkled the whole of the stage with paper dots. He certainly went down well with his fans, but I am not sure what those of us new to him made of it all.
I was surprised to see how many people apparently know of Brandi Carlile - Hall Two was about two thirds full. On talking to people it seems most heard of her on Jools Holland, others, like myself, stumbled across her page on MySpace. Something else which struck me was the diverse age range; a refreshing change.
Bounding onto the stage, dressed in jeans, a black shirt and brown cowboy boots, Brandi looks smart but casual and her attire certainly fits the music.
She and her band-twin brothers Tim and Phil Hanseroth, cellist Josh Neumann, and drummer Steven Nistor opened the show with This Is My Song, clearly starting as they meant to go on. Maybe it's indicative of her gradual but steady ascent to alt.country stardom, but it is clear that Brandi's feet are still very firmly on the ground and the audience is in the palm of her hand from the moment she opens her mouth They totally rocked out for this track, despite Brandi's confession afterwards that they were still somewhat jet - lagged.
Late Morning Lullaby allowed Brandi to show off her vocals during the verses, then the band kicked in for the chorus taking the song to a different plateau.
During Live Until I Die, it was hard not to be distracted by the drummer, who was a joy to watch; clearly in his element.
There was some teasing going on between Brandi and Phil and certain members of the audience took it upon themselves to take Phil's side, which made for some very natural and very amusing banter from the stage.
Somewhat surprisingly, Carlile's personality is very upbeat for someone who usually writes from a fairly dark place. "I write a lot about things I'm not certain about; things that keep you up at night. And I write a lot from a place of being worried. ... I stress and worry about people in my family and my friends and the hard times they have. .. I don't want to worry, and if I can write the song and get it out and get it done with, it really alleviates that stress." You almost get the feeling that singing has the same cathartic effect.
Brandi asked if they could play us a song from the next album and of course everyone cheered an affirmative. She looked around Hall 2 and said she loved the room and felt it would be a cool place to sing it unplugged if everyone was okay with that.
So she tried it out to make sure we could all hear her. What followed was nothing short of stunning. Two guitars, a tambourine and Brandi singing How These Days Grow Long sung totally unplugged. This demonstrated not only something about her - that she had the confidence to do that, but also about the power in her voice. She managed to maintain total control whilst making her voice carry around the room and over the instruments. I haven't seen many artists totally unplug and it was clear from the response that the audience knew it was rather special. I think it perhaps also confirmed what we have always suspected about the quality of the acoustics in Hall 2 of The Sage!
The band pulled right back, allowing Brandi's voice to shine through during Turpentine, during which she also had the audience performing a three part harmony with her. It sounded wonderful.
Talking about the process of songwriting Brandi told us that she often finds that when what she writes is honest enough, it seems to become a self fulfilling prophecy, as she often realizes later.
Carlile then followed up with a gut wrenching performance of "Wasted," a song she wrote when she was as she put it "real real angry" at her 23-year-old brother Jay, telling him in the lyrics; If shining wisdom passed your lips and traveled to the ears of God, you'd waste it.
Then came the song I had been waiting for - the title track of her CD, The Story. Introducing the song Carlile announced, 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 that this is indeed something to be proud
Touchingly she dedicated it to everyone in the audience, thanking us for being a part of her story. The song began with Brandi began the song playing her acoustic guitar, totally solo. Proving how tight the band really is, as Brandi ended the first chorus she was joined by her guitarists, then literally in the middle of her singing the word across the drummer kicked in. Halfway through the song Carlile switched to her electric guitar and suddenly they were playing an all out rock song. Wonderful. Towards the end she stopped to allow the audience to sing a chorus for her then encouraged us to sing along with her.
She left the stage to thunderous applause and returned to even more thunderous applause for an encore.
Telling us she grew up with country music, she felt she had to try her hand at writing a country song. It was very tongue in cheek, but went down well with the audience. As is apparently customary for Carlile and crew, they followed this with a cover song you 'won't generally hear a woman singing'.(unless in this case you have seen Eve Selis live!) The tune is Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues, making the song entirely her own. Finally they ended the night with a rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, which literally made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I'm sure I was not alone.
I had expected this to be a great gig - the CD is one of my favourites of the year - but I didn't expect it to find its way into my top ten all time. Suffice it to say I'll be shouting Hallelujah when I hear she is playing locally again, hopefully very soon!
Helen Mitchell
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