If You Want More Brandi Carlile In Your Life, Start With These Songs

Brandi Carlile has the distinction of being the most nominated woman at the Grammy Awards for 2019, with six nominations in total — that includes nods for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. If you didn't catch her album, you undoubtedly caught her other piece of iconic 2018 work: that drunken Grammy performance scene of "Pretty Woman" that was the beginning of Jackson Maine's downfall in A Star Is Born.

Carlile is 15 years deep into her recording career and her latest album, By The Way, I Forgive You, has brought her some of the biggest accolades of her highly praised career thus far. She describes it as an album about radical forgiveness that she poured her heart and soul into. And we are here to tell you there are plenty of songs on it that will make you cry just as hard as anything Adele could drop.

Along with Janelle Monáe, her nominations also put LGBTQ+ artists into the spotlight, giving them some of the most high-profile recognition in the Recording Academy's history. Carlile, who lives near Seattle with her partner and two small children, is an out lesbian and many of her songs touch on the themes of relationship and, with her new album, motherhood.

Though you can also find her nominated in multiple Americana and roots categories, it's hard to stick Carlile there; her music captures a slice of the American experience, but trying to stick it in a genre is messy business.

Enough of trying to describe her. If you want to get to know Brandi Carlile better, dive into these songs.