About This Book

It may be surprising that singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile has written a memoir on the cusp of only age 40, but she has accomplished a lot and has a lot to say. She has won numerous Grammy awards, including both Record of the Year and Song of the Year for "The Joke." The daughter of a musical mother and a father with a drinking problem, Carlile grew up poor outside of Seattle and started singing country songs when she was a child. She also survived some scary early health issues, which formed her personality in a profound way, learning, in what she calls "Poor Kid Survival 101," to "seize every opportunity." Carlile writes about her early musical influences, such as the Judds, and includes lyrics from songs that have affected her, from Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” and Elton John’s “Honky Cat” to Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah." But it was the Indigo Girls, she affirms, that changed her world both musically and personally.

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association.