The Story

The Story is the Brandi Carlile band’s second full length studio album after self-titled Brandi Carlile. The band have said they had too many songs for one album and split all their songs into two, the self-titled and then this The Story.

Produced by T-Bone Burnett in Vancouver, Canada. Brandi recalled, that he’d introduce them to instruments they’d never played. He turned up one day to the studio with a small “parlour guitar” which she played on every song.

The single The Story was released in 2006 and the album in 2007.

The title track, The Story became their ‘flagship’ song played at every concert since. It was written by Phil Hanseroth, prior to the group forming, however the song became more widely known when it was chosen in 2008 by GM for their Olympic commercial.

Read more about the song “The Story” in our Drop The Needle deep dive into the track.

In a great interview with their friend Rita Houston from WFUV in 2007, they play some songs and speak to her about the release of the album. Brandi recalls they have been playing those songs for better part of 10 years.

The below article we have published in full in case the 15 year old site page every goes down:

Perfectly Flawed
As The Story proves, we should’ve been paying attention to Brandi Carlile years ago.
By Cole Haddon on Wed, Oct 3, 2007

Rightly called The Story, the album was recorded (imperfections abounding) on two-inch tape with the help of producer T Bone Burnett.

“Nobody wants to hear perfection, because nobody’s perfect,” declares Brandi Carlile over the phone, lying on her lawn in Ravensdale, Washington, just outside the Starbucks capital. “It’s something I’ve learned playing live shows. People want you to fuck up.”

The country-fried singer-songwriter, who’s as obsessed with the Grand Ole Opry as she is Elton John, is taking a brief break from her current tour, VH1’s You Oughta Know concert series.

Here’s the thing: You should’ve known about Brandi Carlile two years ago, when she released her self-titled debut. But for Johnny-come-latelies, Carlile just released her sophomore effort, 13 tracks that document the past 10 years of her life. Rightly called The Story, the album was recorded (imperfections abounding) on two-inch tape with the help of producer T Bone Burnett.

“The truth is, I felt really self-conscious in the studio with T Bone,” admits Carlile, recalling how Burnett robbed her and the Twins (her band and co-songwriters, Tim and Phil Hanseroth) of their familiar touring instruments and forced them to record with unfamiliar gear. “That’s not really a bad thing, when those songs and performing those songs have to constantly challenge me.”

In other words, the album’s not perfect. It’s the product of recording mostly live to tape. Not every chord was hit. Not every note was hit. Carlile’s voice famously cracks and then breaks when she sings, “All of these lines across my face,” lyrics from the titular track.

When it’s pointed out that Ben Harper’s just-released Lifeline was also recorded on tape, taking seven days to record 11 tracks, while she took 11 to record 13, Carlile quickly responds, “We were taking it slow,” and laughs. “I thought it was going to take less time than that.”

On the first day, they hit the studio at 10 p.m. By two in the morning, they had laid down two complete tracks. “We were like, ‘Wow, this is only going to take us three days.'” In the middle of the 11 days, though, they all decided to drive out to Whistler, British Columbia, for a break, which means Harper and his band’s much-lauded accomplishment isn’t so impressive.

Also interesting is how the songs that make up The Story were held back from Carlile’s initial EP releases as well as her debut, thanks to some advice from Rick Rubin, who had wanted to sign her and the Twins to his American Recordings label before Columbia beat him to the punch.

Ultimately, he, like Carlile, knew it was better to wait to record such momentous songs. “I’m protective of my songs — what they say to me, what they mean to me,” says Carlile, explaining her decision to release a debut that she knew wasn’t her best work. “So I just didn’t want to record them [before we were ready], because once you record a song, it’s essentially gone. You’re letting go. You can’t add or take away from it.”

Although Carlile refers to what she records as “my songs,” most are co-written with the Twins. The Hanseroth brothers were in the Fighting Machinists, a Seattle rock band that Carlile followed. When the Machinists dissolved, the three struck up a working relationship, which has since mutated into a musical family that can speak as one. As with the original Alice Cooper band, “Brandi Carlile” is not just a singer-songwriter who produces country pop that — thanks to her raw, emotive voice — transcends conventional, sometimes even mediocre lyrics to become something powerful. “Brandi Carlile” is a band, and the Twins are — in a crazy, post-nuclear-family kind of way — its flesh and blood.

https://www.clevescene.com/music/perfectly-flawed-1502738

Notes on Songs

Notes on Songs (mostly taken from the January 2021 full performance of The Story – live streamed via VEEPS, from their home studio).

In this streaming special, Brandi says it’s the only album that they played back to front in every configuation possible for many years before they got a record deal. She refers to playing the songs now like ‘muscle memory’.

Late Morning Lullaby

The Story This song was written by Phil, prior to meeting Brandi Carlile. She first performed the song on her own aged around 19, at a university venue called The Raindancer, when expecting the twins to turn up as Fighting Machinists to headline, they didn’t turn up.

They refer to it as the ‘flagship song’ of their band.

In the Rita Houston interview in 2007 Phil says of this song, “It was one of those songs I just wrote. I wrote the melody first….I plucked it right of the air.” The Story appeared on a Fighting Machinists EP in 2002, well after they had started playing with Brandi Carile as a band.

Turpentine Brandi wrote this song prior to meeting the twins and featured an early version of it on her own self-released ep Open Doors. She wrote it when she was about 17 years old and it’s in reference to her relationship with her brother.

My Song Around the time Brandi Carlile wrote this song, she was listening to a lot of U2 and Dave Matthews Band and was heavily influenced by them. In the Veep special Brandi shares that the Dave Matthews Band ‘never end any section of the song in the same time or same way’ and she says every drummer they’ve every played with has always been so annoyed by it. She also refers to it as a ‘missing track’ on Joshua Tree by U2, in reference to the major influence of that album. Often when performing it live, they will merge into U2’s “Streets Have No Name”.

Wasted Brandi Carlile wrote this prior to forming the band and also released this on her self made EP – Open Doors. She tells of being around 17 and moving out with her girlfriend. She had a friend Michael who was in the military and went away, and his mom bought around an old piano from around 1900 which is still in her living room to this day. On the first day she had it, she sat down and wrote this song, (her first on a piano).

Have You Ever The folklore of this song, written by Phil, is based on Phil ‘wandering around naked’ in the very forest where they all still live 20 plus year on.

Josephine – Written by Tim and Brandi. They were in one of their original buses touring in Oregan, driving at night in winter time, and Tim passed Brandi a piece of paper with the lyrics form the first verse, and Brandi penned the second verse. Phil subsequently named his first born after the song.

Cannonball – During the recording Brandi Carlile and T-Bone would slip away to an Irish pub. When she first met with T-Bone she played him three songs, Cannonball, Downpour and Tale of Sorrows (which they didn’t record). When he asked where she was influenced with those songs, Brandi tells of seeing Elvis Costello play a solo show and finish with a particular song (Scarlet Tide). She learns T-Bone wrote that song and said it’s Irish. He says he can hear the influence and vows to visit an Irish Pub daily when recording their album. This song is also the first one they ever sang with the Indigo Girls.

Until I Die – This is the first song Brandi Carlile ever recorded with Tim Hanseroth.

Downpour – This song is one of the few vinyl 7inches that the band has released. Read more about this song here.

Shadow on the Wall – Is one of the first songs that Tim and Brandi truely wrote together. (source: https://wfuv.org/content/brandi-carlile-words-and-music-2007)

Hiding My Heart – This was released as a ‘hidden track’ on the The Story. Only because as kids they liked it when their favourite bands did the ‘easter egg’ thing. This was also released as a cover by Adele, released only in UK, which later featured on Cover Stories.

On the Story’s 10 year anniversary, they released a cover version of the album in support of War Child, called Cover Stories. (Read more about that here)

The album was re-released in 2014 – and then 2021 & 2022 Dualtone/Magnolia released colored versions of the album (Pearl and Pearl Fog respectively), although not considered an official BC release. (Further version 2017 with the Cover Stories in 2017)

There is an alternative version of Hiding My Heart which was featured on the opening of the VEEPS stream in 2021 when they played the entirety of the album. The Unofficial Archivist are not sure where else this version been released. If you know what we are talking about – drop us a note below, we’d love to hear from you.

Track List

Full list of versions :