"You Ought to Know"

Last night Mike and I went to see Brandi Carlile in concert, and WOW. She's touring as part of the VH1 "You Ought to Know" Concert series, and they're right. She was amazing. We had to drop kids off with our neighbor for 9 hours on a school night (4pm to 1am: we really, really owe her) and drive for nearly 2 hours on the way up (traffic) and an hour and a half on the way back, but it was totally worth it.

If you are like every other person we have talked to, right now you're saying, "who?" Brandi Carlile. She's got a kind of folk-rock sound with a little bit of country behind it. It should come as no surprise that I like her so much: she grew up listening to classic country music but then discovered rock music in high school. (Sound like someone?) She and her guitarist write almost everything she sings, which is huge to me. I really admire people who write their own music, and I think you can hear it in their voices.
So back to the concert. The Mt Baker theatre is a small, 1940's concert hall with amazing acoustics. Our seats were in the 9th row, on the floor, on the isle. I felt like I was in one of those VH1 storyteller specials. Brandi and "the twins," the brothers who are her guitarist and bassist, put on a great show and put way more rock behind their songs on stage than they do on their albums. And to really make it a great live music experience, they debuted a song recently written by Tim, the guitarist, AND they sang one song completely unplugged (which, because of the size of the theatre, we could easily hear.)
Now I have to tell a story about Sydney. She was conflicted about us going, because while she got to have a playdate with 2 of her favorite neighbors while we were gone, she really likes Brandi Carlile and was jealous that we went without her. When we got home at almost 1am, we found her awake in bed. She said she couldn't sleep. (I'm sure she had slept some, since she went to bed at 10 minutes to 8.) But she was wide awake at 1, and when I asked her if she was thinking about something, she said, "Yes, Brandi Carlile. What did she sing, mom?" I told her a little about the concert, and then sang part of her final song, which was a beautiful rendition of Hallelujah. At that, she went back to sleep.

A couple of days later, I searched online trying to find a couple of pictures of the concert to show her. I didn't have much luck. Then someone told me to check flickr (www.flickr.com). OK, I feel really old admitting this, but I had never even heard of this site. I easily found a ton of pictures of her concerts, including the one last week in Bellingham. That's where these pictures came from.

Do I admit the next part? I next cranked up my computer savvy by checking out youtube for the first time. (I know, I know... I HAD actually been to this site before, but only a couple of times to check out links that someone sent in an email. I've never actually gone there on my own.) At any rate, I was able to hear the new song (A Promise to Keep), the unplugged song (How These Days Grow Long), a heart-wrenching song she wrote about a friend of hers who committed suicide in high school (That Year), and Hallelujah--none of which are currently available on any album or iTunes. I played Hallelujah for Sydney, BTW, and she loved it.

Here's a couple of clips to listen to if you've never heard her music... you'll have to try to ignore the people singing along!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LcaacdBfIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMmQp53HAT0

This is definitely going to feed my growing interest in live music...