Brandi Carlile is a six-time GRAMMY Award-winning singer, songwriter, performer, producer and activist, who is known as one of music’s most respected voices.
Adding to her esteemed career as a musician, Carlile’s new memoir, Broken Horses, recently debuted at #1 on The New York Times Best Sellers list and continues to receive overwhelming critical acclaim. Of the book, published by Crown, The New York Times declares, “If you’re already a Brandi Carlile fan…there’s an excellent chance you’ll find ‘Broken Horses’ charming, funny, illuminating and poignant. If you’re not a fan, ‘Broken Horses’ might well make you into one,” and Variety praises, “Carlile is that rare pop or rock star gifted with complete self-consciousness and confidence but also the soulful clairvoyance to read a room…even a really, really big, global room.”
The book comes on the heels of Carlile’s recent Best Country Song GRAMMY Award for the song “Crowded Table” — her second-consecutive win in the category. Written by Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Lori McKenna, “Crowded Table” is from The Highwomen’s self-titled debut album. Of the acclaimed collaborative movement, which features Carlile, Hemby, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires, Entertainment Weekly declares, “As solo singer-songwriters,\ the women are formidable; together, they are sublime…Pooling their strengths in this supergroup creates a Voltron that radiates heart, humor, and high times.”
Furthering her affinity for collaboration, Carlile, along with Shooter Jennings, produced Tanya Tucker’s acclaimed 2019 album, While I’m Livin,’ which won Best Country Album at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards. She also co-wrote seven of the album’s ten tracks with longtime collaborators and bandmates Tim and Phil Hanseroth including “Bring My Flowers Now,” which won Best Country Song and was also nominated for Song of the Year — Carlile’s secondconsecutive nomination in the all-genre category. She’s also worked with several iconic artists throughout her career including Dolly Parton, Sam Smith, Elton John, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Gary Clark Jr., Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, John Prine, Yola, Dave Matthews and more.
These most recent projects add to a series of triumphant years for Carlile following the 2018 release of her breakthrough GRAMMY Award-winning album, By The Way, I Forgive You. In the years since — in addition to her six GRAMMY Awards, recognizing her work as a performer, songwriter and producer — Carlile was awarded Billboard’s Women In Music “Trailblazer Award,” CMT’s Next Women of Country “Impact Award” and received multiple recognitions from the Americana Music Association Honors & Awards with 2020’s Album of the Year (Highwomen), Group of the Year (The Highwomen) and Song of the Year (“Crowded Table”) and 2019’s Artist of the Year.
On top of being a musician and writer, Carlile is also a founder of the Looking Out Foundation. Created in 2008 with Tim and Phil Hanseroth, Looking Out amplifies the impact of music by empowering those without a voice with varied initiatives including campaigns focused on Children in Conflict/War Child, The If Project, Fund Racial Justice, Fight The Fear, Looking Out For The Hungry and more. To date, they have raised over $1 million benefiting children whose families, communities and schools have been torn apart by war through their 2017 Cover Stories project and, overall, over $2 million to grassroots causes.
Carlile lives in rural Washington state with her wife, Catherine, and two daughters, Evangeline and Elijah.