Brandi Carlile Stuns in Sweltering Texas Performance

Julian Spivey Photo

by Julian Spivey
Brandi Carlile is an artist I’ve wanted to see in concert for a while because she might have the single best voice of any performing artist going right now and most importantly her songwriting is terrific making what she’s singing more important.

Carlile performed at the Dos Equis Pavilion in Dallas on Saturday, July 16 and it was everything I wanted it to be. It seemed to be more than everything she wanted, as well, as she seemed legitimately shocked by the number of people who showed up at the venue to see her – saying it was the biggest crowd she’s ever performed in front of in Texas.

Carlile opened her set with “Broken Horses,” off her most recent album In These Silent Days (2021), which is an absolutely perfect way to begin one of her shows.

Early on during the set she invited Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig from the opening act Lucius to provide backing vocals on “You and Me on the Rock,” just as they do on In These Silent Days. Carlile and the Lucius women sounded terrific together on stage.

Many of my favorite Carlile songs, thus favorite performances from the evening, came in the early portion of her set like: “The Story,” which was her breakthrough release in 2007, “The Eye,” a standout from her 2015 album The Firewatcher’s Daughter and “The Mother,” which is my absolute favorite Carlile song from my favorite Carlile album By the Way, I Forgive You (2018).

Having looked at previous concert setlists for Carlile’s shows one of the parts of her set I was greatly anticipating was her covers. On Saturday night she invited the Lucius women and the first opener of the night Celisse on stage for a rocking performance of Heart’s 1987 hit “Alone.” The Lucius women and Carlile traded off vocals brilliantly on the song and Celisse had a fantastic guitar solo. I’m not much of a power ballad fan so I don’t think I got as much out of this particular performance as much of the audience. The cover I really dug was David Bowie’s classic “Space Oddity,” which also featured a solo by Celisse, a wonderfully talented guitarist. “Space Oddity” went effortlessly into the early Radiohead single “Creep,” which isn’t really my thing, but damn if the audience didn’t react like it was potentially their favorite moment of the entire show. I frankly would’ve preferred another of Carlile’s frequent covers of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” to go with “Space Oddity.”

After the rocking covers section of her show, Carlile went into the quietest performance of her set in “Cannonball,” off 2007’s The Story, which was just her with her guitarists and frequent co-songwriters Phil and Tim Hanseroth on stage in a very stripped down arrangement.

Carlile’s set wrapped up with a terrific four-song punch of “Right On Time,” her Grammy-nominated lead single off In These Silent Days, “Sinners, Saints and Fools,” off the latest album, “The Joke,” her Grammy-nominated single off By the Way, I Forgive You and “Party of One.” Carlile’s voice particularly soars unlike any artist I’ve ever seen perform live on “Right On Time” and “The Joke.”

Carlile returned to the stage for a four-song encore that kicked off with a slowed down version of Joni Mitchell/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s “Woodstock.” She performed a sweltering (an apt word for the entire evening in 100-degree Texas heat) version of “Hold Out Your Hand.” Before she finished with a terrific version of “Stay Gentle” and a cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” she told the Texas audience to take care of themselves, especially in today’s political climate and that she’s found people are often so much better than their leaders.

Carlile is without a doubt the most talented vocalist I’ve ever seen live, and her show definitely made my five-hour trek to Dallas well-worth it.

Celisse opened the evening of music at 7 p.m. local time and performed a short four-song set of her soulful R&B showcasing her lovely and powerful voice and fantastic guitar playing. The highlight of her set for me was her wonderful cover of Bill Withers’ “Use Me.”

Lucius is a bit more pop than I’d typically listen to, but they had some performances I enjoyed like their opening “Next to Normal,” the lead single off their most recent album Second Nature, which was co-produced by Carlile. My favorite performance of their set was their easy-going cover of Gerry Rafferty’s 1978 hit “Right Down the Line.” 

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