CD is flawed to perfection

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, March 29, 2007

Brandi Carlile wanted to make her second CD, “The Story,” capture the feel, the sound and the emotion of her live show.

Just how far she was willing to go to meet that goal is apparent in one of the most flawed moments one will ever hear on a CD.

On the second chorus of the CD’s title song, Carlile digs down to hit what is a powerful, high note, and her voice cracks – and not just a little. Some artists would have viewed it as a vocal train wreck, but Carlile (and her producer, T Bone Burnett) realized she had inadvertently captured something special – even though Carlile had been intent on nailing a perfect vocal.

“I realized about half-way through that the band was killing it,” she said. “They were playing so good, and I knew that I shouldn’t make a mistake because I didn’t want to ruin it. So I started to get really intensely determined to nail that vocal. And right before that scream I was, like, all right … I’m just going to bring it. I went to hit that note and my voice cracked and I was, like, I almost started laughing, like, ‘Oh, … damn it’ … But I kept going and ended up, I walked in and T Bone’s, like, we should keep that vocal forever.”

It’s by no means the only moment on “The Story” on which Carlile let a less-than-perfect take become the finished track.

“We left hundreds of flaws,” Carlile said. “If you look at some of those old Beatles records, you can hear mistakes. You can even hear them talking, ‘Oh man, I made a mistake,’ and the Beatles are still going and nothing stops. And there are places where the tape obviously cuts out. It’s so cool. People don’t want to hear you be perfect.”

Carlile had set her sights on capturing the feel of her live show well ahead of the recording sessions. Circumstances had made such a goal impossible on her 2005 self-titled CD.

She didn’t have a record deal when the first album was recorded – a deal with Rick Rubin’s American Recordings fell through – and this forced the Seattle native to record songs whenever the opportunity and finances allowed while on tour.

Carlile even decided to hold on to some of her best songs because she didn’t know what kind of release the record, eventually was picked up by Columbia, might see.

“We decided to pool money together as we could over the course of a year … and record what we thought were our B-sides. …”

“The Story,” as Carlile hinted, contains what she felt were her A-grade songs. In fact, all but three of the tunes on the CD had been in her repertoire for some time.

Stylistically, fans who discovered Carlile’s debut CD will find “The Story,” which comes out Tuesday, to be a comfortable follow-up, as she sticks largely to the melodic folk-pop sound that defined the first album.

But “The Story” has a stronger set of songs. “Wasted,” “Turpentine” and “Cannonball” are all first-rate ballads. And the moments when she does rock it up a bit – as on the stellar title track (cracked vocal and all) and “My Song” – add a welcome bit of juice that the first CD lacked.

“This album might be a little more rock … but only because maybe we didn’t have the means to make the last one as rock,” Carlile said. “There are songs (on the first CD) that are acoustic only because we didn’t have the money to have a drummer … or we didn’t have a studio. … Those kinds of things kept us from making the last record like this record, which is what we wanted to do all along.”

Burnett and Carlile decided to record “The Story” live in the studio, with Carlile (on guitar and vocals) joined by her core bandmates, twin brothers Phil Hanseroth (bass) and Tim Hanseroth (guitar), session drummer Matt Chamberlain and cellist Josh Neumann all playing together, which gives the CD a sense of spontaneity and urgency.

“We could all see each other in the room,” said Carlile, who is touring with the same instrumental lineup. “It’s just a slamming performance, you know what I mean?”

“I really am of the school of thought that at least in my band, when we record a record we should try and strive to sound like the live show rather than playing a live show that sounds like a record.”