CUYAHOGA FALLS – Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile brought her latest tour to town and, in a two-hour show, rocked, encouraged, commiserated and charmed the crowd at Blossom Music Center on Saturday night.
Carlile entered the stage arm-in-arm-in-arm with Phil and Tim Hanseroth, her bandmates and songwriting collaborators for a quarter century. The music-makers’ chemistry and comfort levels were immediately obvious, with the tight harmonies on the gently encouraging ballad “Stay Gentle” from the multi-Grammy-winning “In These Silent Days” album. The album dominated the two-hour set.
A solo rendition of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” was quickly followed by the rockin’ “Broken Horses,” establishing a rhythm for the show. The set list was constructed to rise and fall dynamically, keeping the already entranced crowd emotionally and musically engaged.
It certainly helped that Carlile was charismatic and exuded a warm, convivial and appreciative aura, constantly complimenting the fervent crowd and the “amazing” wooden ceiling of Blossom’s stage. She reminisced about years of playing the House of Blues Cleveland and the fistfights that happened at every show.
The lovely and hopeful opening tunes, augmented by the lively string quartet, then jumped into the fist-pumping power chords and defiance of “Wild Horses,” the double Grammy-winning, rockin’ Americana tune (” Amerirockicana?” No?) and the bouncy foot-stomping “Things I Regret.” Then a sing-a-long of “You and Me On The Rock,” with harmony help from the string players, led into “The Story,” with its Radiohead “Creep”-like heavy down-stroking guitar coda.
The core trio brought the energy back down with a lovely rendition of “The Eye,” highlighting their gorgeous and super-tight Crosby, Stills and Nash Laurel Canyon-inspired harmonies.
Anyone who has been to a few concerts knows there’s usually an element of spiel in the frontperson’s stage banter, but among Carlile’s gifts is making the personal feel universal. Carlile told a cute, if a bit lengthy story describing her eldest daughter, “best friend and rival” Evangeline, before performing “The Mother,” which had audience members chuckling and talking about the similar parent-child relationships in their lives.
It all added to Carlile’s aura as the approachable star, talented yet tethered to the regular responsibilities and everyday struggles and triumphs everyone in the room also lives through. She encouraged the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” to a fan’s mom. She talked of recently celebrating her 11th anniversary and how, without her wife and children on the road with her, she has quickly devolved into playing video games until 5 a.m., confessed with a modicum of shame.
At the same time, when the band is rockin’, and she happily highlights each member at some point in the evening, Carlile is unquestionably the star. And, the crowd of diverse, over-30 couples frequently leaning into each other, hugging and singing to each other, along with groups of friends and multi-generations of families all clearly enamored with Carlile’s total package. They sang along whenever prompted and cheered on all of Carlile’s cool rock poses, headbangs and hair flips.
Carlile kept the up-and-down dynamic going with an old-school countrified rocker, “Raise Hell,” which felt like a Sunday revival at the hippest church in town. She followed it with “7 1/2 minutes of sad lesbian music” with Carlile’s piano ballad “Party of One.”
Then she came up again for a hard-rocking, kinetic take on “Mainstream Kid” from the “Firewatcher’s Daughter” album featuring fiery vocals from show opener singer-songwriter-guitarist Katie Pruitt and The Twins all jumping around.
“Saints, Sinners and Fools” kept the Americana rock going with an intense, melodramatic string arrangement courtesy of cellist and violinist Chauntee and Monique Ross, collectively known as Sistastrings. The Grammy-winning ode to understanding, accepting and helping marginalized people, “The Joke,” gave way to the catchy thump and hopeful “Hold My Hand,” with its chantable “Ba-da-da, ba-da-da, ba-da-da!” brought it home.
Carlile ended the show by once again praising the crowd for its awesomeness. She gave a quick monologue about being better to each other and believing that things are changing for marginalized folks, despite the constant inundation from the media, both mainstream and social sites. Carlile and crew ended the music with covers of Paul McCartney and Wings “Live and Let Die” and Queen’s “We Are The Champions,” sending folks home with a musical message of hope.
