If you live in Knoxville or pass through stop in because the people at the Disc Exchange are extremely friendly and they have VINYL! It is a throw-back to the old days. It reminded me of the seventies when my dad, mom and sister would head down to the record store on a Saturday and browse the latest releases for an hour or so. Funny thing, Brandi loves Elton John and I would have been looking through the Elton albums back in the seventies. I was a big fan but I do give a portion of the credit to Bernie Taupin, I love great lyrics. Where was I? OK, so Brandi plays 3 or 4 songs for the crowd of 100 or so all crammed in the corner of the record store for this up-close and personal mini performance. Just about the time everyone started realizing it wasn’t a dream she was whisked away, after all, she had a concert to do at 8pm. I’m not sure how we got lucky enough to attend this special performance but I thank the Disc Exchange and anyone else who was responsible, thank you Brandi Carlile, it was a treat. After she left, we browsed the Vinyl and a few of us purchased some CDs. I already had Give Up The Ghost on Vinyl so I bought the CD. The store had some autographed lithographs they gave away with the purchase so that was a bonus.

At this point we just barely had an hour to eat so we drove toward the Bijou Theatre where the concert was being held. A couple of laps around the city and we decided to park by the theater and eat across the street at Dazzo’s Italian Castle Pizzeria. We were really pushing it for time so we ordered meatball subs and a pizza. As 8pm approached we knew we weren’t going to make it. Both the waitress and the Chef apologized because they knew we were going to the Bijou for the concert but it was our fault for cutting it so close, not theirs. The food was great, I had not had NY style Italian food for some time, since 1993. (Maybe some day I will tell the story about moving from Miami to the back-woods of North Georgia)

So we missed quite a bit of the opening act, Amy Ray (1/2 of the Indigo Girls). The tickets didn’t say anything about an opening band and let me tell you, for those that know Amy from the Indigo Girls, forget-about-it. I think she was doing “Bus Bus” when we walked in and hearing it live makes the recorded version sound bad (it’s not). It was wall-to-wall rock-n-roll from the heart. I didn’t know much about Amy because I was not a fan of the Indigo Girls. The little I had heard from the Girls back in the day made me think of Joan Jett meets James Taylor and that’s not an Ice Cream flavor I prefer. I can tell you I have ordered Amy Ray’s latest from Amazon and I will review it soon because she was smokin’ at the Brandi Carlile gig. It might be hard to be objective though because I just read that she used to cover Dire Straits in the early years of her career so she already gets a big thumbs up. My hats off to the kid on the drums too because he was beating the hell out of them. Visit the Amy Ray website.

So now to the main event, Brandi Carlile. She has so much to give and she does. The twins, Tim and Phil are a great complement to her unique voice and gift for words and music, the songs. I have always been drawn to artists who write their own songs and have very unique voices, a voice that makes them try harder, from the heart. Great voices that require effort always felt better to me than the ones that flow naturally. I love to hear Janice Joplin, Mark Knopfler, Ricki Lee Jones, Tom Petty, Deana Carter, Will Hoge, to name a few. Back to Brandi, the first time I heard Brandi was on the Pat Monahan (Train) album “Last of Seven”. She sings on “Pirate on the Run” and steals the show (sorry Pat). I admit I was late to the Brandi party but I’m catching up.

Back to the concert, Brandi proved to be quite the entertainer, some humor, some “angry” Dylan, talk about mom and niece, she let us all in and she stole our hearts by giving her own, it was a fair swap. The theater is so intimate that we got to hear her unplugged, completely, I mean she did a song without a mic and it resonated all the way to the back of the theater. I kept thinking selfishly “don’t strain those vocal cords this early in” but she pulled it off and it was an experience you can’t get from a recording. As they played song after song time went faster and faster, to the point where you are thinking, man this is almost over, but it kept going and then we get some more personal time. Brandi does some Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn. Joking about bad country in a good way and making the whole experience even more personal, it was great. If you haven’t seen Brandi Carlile live then I encourage you to find out when she is touring near you and get your tickets because this is one performance you don’t want to miss. Visit the Brandi Carlile website.

…and then we drove home in the snow.

Buy from Amazon

If you haven’t heard the new album you need to get it now. One of my sons gave it to me for Christmas, on Vinyl!  I was already a big fan and this album doesn’t let you down. Brandi just keeps on giving and keeps my hopes alive that the music industry will turn around and start rewarding talent rather than hairdos, cowboy hats, and cleavage.

For you Elton John fans he gives an appearance on this album, he rips the piano and even adds a few vocals.