JUST LISTEN REWIND: BRANDI CARLILE

Back in June, we did a Just Listen post featuring Brandi Carlile. Earlier this month, she released her new CD, Give Up the Ghost, featuring the hit single, "Dreams."

From her website, she sent out the following message:

Today is the day!!!!! Our third record, Give Up the Ghost, comes out on a major label. Time is flying here in my late 20s!

I've been collecting these email addresses since I was 18-years-old -- in bars, on the street, on napkins, and scraps. It may seem out of context to you, but to me it all adds up to make perfect sense. For instance, you showed up by the dozens when we played in bars and earned us our residencies. You showed up by the hundreds to our label showcases and helped us earn a record deal. Now you show up in tens of thousands, and we see you on the road but YOU keep us there.

There are so many of you now, that if just half of you went out and bought ghost this week, it would send an absolute shock wave through the record label and continue to send the message loud and clear that WE ALL get to decide what's mainstream and what touches us. Use your voice this week!

We are so proud of ghost. We believe it to be the most important record we've made, and we cant wait to hear what you think...i hope....gulp ;-)

Call your local radio station! Support your local record store! And thanks so much for holding us up and lighting the way.

love
brandi, tim, phil...and josh ;-)

You can learn more about Brandi Carlile on her official website and pick up a copy of Give Up the Ghost here.

JUST LISTEN: BRANDI CARLILE

Singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile was born in Ravensdale, Washington, just 50 miles outside of Seattle. With few friends or neighbors nearby, she learned to rely on herself for entertainment. She fell in love with hiking and camping in the woods and taught herself to sing. Her parents, fans of classic country music, encouraged Brandi's natural talent. Brandi made her stage debut at age 8 when her mother took her to a local country radio show.

By her late teens, Brandi was a fan of rock & roll and picked up the guitar. She was soon playing gigs in Seattle bars and sang backup for an Elvis tribute act. She ran into a band called the Fighting Machinists featuring twin brothers Tim and Phil Hanseroth. When the Fighting Machinists broke up, she convinced the brothers to join her and form a group.

They started out as a hard edge rock & roll band but Brandi's songwriting and acoustic guitar work became the focus of the group and were soon touring, opening for major acts like Dave Matthews and Shawn Colvin. In 2005, Brandi signed with Columbia Records, releasing a self-titled album by the end of that same year. Rolling Stone magazine called her one of 2005's "Artists to Watch" and by 2006, Brandi began work on her second album. The Story was released in 2007 with the title track hearing a crack in her vocals which happened by accident. She describes the vocals as "technically wrong but emotionally right".

You can learn more about Brandi Carlile on her official website and buy her music here.