page_title: Brandi Carlile
section_title: 2007–2009: Breakthrough with The Story
hierarchical_section_title: Brandi Carlile / Life and career / 2007–2009: Breakthrough with The Story
caption_attribution_description: Brandi Carlile on mypeople.com Stage at CITY STAGES 2006
context_page_description: Brandi Marie Carlile is a multiple Grammy award winning singer-songwriter and producer whose music spans multiple genres. As of 2020, Carlile has released six studio albums and earned eleven Grammy Award nominations, including one for The Firewatcher's Daughter, six for By the Way, I Forgive You, and three for her work as producer and songwriter on Tanya Tucker’s 2019 album While I’m Livin’. She was the most nominated woman at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards including nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. In 2019, Carlile formed an all-female quartet with Amanda Shires, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby called The Highwomen. They released their debut album The Highwomen in 2019 to critical and commercial acclaim.
  Born in Ravensdale, Washington, a rural town southeast of Seattle, Carlile dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music, teaching herself piano and guitar. Her debut major label album, Brandi Carlile, was released to critical acclaim yet achieved limited commercial success. Carlile garnered wider recognition with her 2007 single "The Story", from her album of the same name.
context_section_description: Her second album The Story was produced by T Bone Burnett. It includes a collaboration with the Indigo Girls on "Cannonball." The album was recorded in an 11-day session with Carlile, the Hanseroths and drummer Matt Chamberlain to capture the raw intensity of Carlile's live performances. The crack in Carlile's vocals during the title track, "The Story", came out by accident and was a direct result of the way the album was recorded. "The Story" was featured heavily in General Motors commercials during the 2008 Summer Olympics, leading to increased exposure to her music. In response to the advertisement, album sales increased 368 percent from 1,323 to 6,198. Sales for the lead single, "The Story", increased in downloads of 28,091 copies."The Story" peaked at No. 5 on the iTunes Music Store's most purchased list. The song was also used in the 2008 commercial for Super Bock and helped the song reach No. 1 and the album reach No. 4 on the Portuguese charts. "The Story" was featured on the end credits of the romantic drama film The Lucky One.
  The album has sold more than 257,776 copies in the US and peaked at No. 41 on Billboard 200 and No. 10 on US Rock Albums.
  Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised Carlile for The Story saying, "The roiling collection fulfills the promise of her remarkable debut, offering resounding confirmation that Carlile is a singular talent."
  "It wasn't until 2007's The Story—her T-Bone Burnett-produced sophomore release—that we realized even half of what we'd been dealt. Nearly a minute into the second song, something about her shifted from promise to absolute certainty as Carlile let loose a hurricane of lung power” wrote Rachael Maddux for Paste magazine.
  Three songs from her previous album, "Tragedy," "What Can I Say," and "Throw It All Away," were featured in the TV drama Grey's Anatomy. A special two-hour episode of Grey's Anatomy also featured Carlile's song "Turpentine" during footage of the spin-off, Private Practice. Grey's Anatomy also released a version of the music video for "The Story" with interspersed footage of the show. Actress Sara Ramirez performed her version of Carlile's single "The Story" in the musical episode of the show.
  In 2007 Carlile performed at the Borderline in London and as guest on Newton Faulkner's UK tour. She was the opening act for Maroon 5 and OneRepublic during their Australia tour. In April 2008, she performed on the BBC2 show Later... with Jools Holland.
  Give Up the Ghost was released in 2009 and debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard 200. Produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Rick Rubin, it featured a collaboration with Elton John on the song "Caroline" as well as Amy Ray, drummer Chad Smith and keyboardist Benmont Tench. In 2010, National Geographic Channel in Latin America chose the song "If There Was No You" from the album as a jingle to promote its series "Grandes Migraciones" (Great Migrations). Also that same year, during the 21st GLAAD Media Awards, Carlile was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding Music Artist" for the album. The album peaked at No. 26 on US Billboard 200.
  In one of the reviews of the album for Paste, Rachael Maddux wrote, "Writhing and burning and staring at life straight down the barrel, Give Up the Ghost is exactly the album Carlile needed to make at this moment. The production is thick but elegant, applied with full knowledge that the songs could exist beautifully in a sparse acoustic-strummed daze, but that they deserve more than that." She added, "The best part about Give Up The Ghost? She will probably make an even better album one day."
caption: Her song "The Story" became her first single to reach No. 1 (in Portugal).
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