Getting to Know Brandi Carlile

Brandi Carlile—the risk-taking, try-it-all, rock-and-roll, Americana, singer-songwriter, and guitarist—will take the stage with her full band at College of Charleston TD Arena on Memorial Day (Monday, May 30 at 8:30pm) during the Festival’s 40th season. Here are some facts you may or may not know about Brandi:

Born on June 1, 1981 in Ravensdale, Washington
Six albums to date—her most recent album is the Grammy-nominated The Fire Watcher’s Daughter (2015)
Brandi’s versatile vocal talents have taken her musical focus from pop, to rock, to alternative country, to folk, and all the spaces in-between. She seeks to erase the lines between musical genres.
Her mother was also a singer and taught Brandi to sing country music on stage when she was 8 years old.
When she was 16, she was as a backup singer for an Elvis impersonator.
She dropped out of school as a teenager to put her focuses towards a music career
She collaborated with Elton John, whose music inspired her to learn to play piano, for her album Give Up the Ghost in 2009.
Early in her career she was featured on Rolling Stone’s “10 Artists to Watch in 2005.”
Her first album Brandi Carlile reached number 1 on U.S. Folk Albums in the Billboard charts.
The original trio (herself and twin brothers Tim and Phil Hanseroth) make up the core of her band today.
4 of Brandi’s songs have appeared on Grey’s Anatomy.
Boston Globe wrote that Brandi has “the most arresting female voice in pop this side of Adele.”
Brandi and her band frequently record raw tracks for their albums and avoid making demos, because as she told NPR, rock and roll is “more of a recklessness or a risk.”
She created the Looking Out Foundation in 2008 to give financial support to causes such as the American Diabetes Association, Honor the Earth, and others.
She is known for her immense voice that cracks when singing strenuously and emotionally.