Five Brandi Carlile Songs Just To Get You Started

Brandi Carlile is one of today's best young singer-songwriters. She's become increasingly popular with each record release, and with good reason. She crosses genres and has one of the most hauntingly beautiful voices in the biz. Brandi Carlile is folk. She is rock. She is alternatively country and pop. Her vocal chords strain over every track like a weathered vet. Her original songs are just as good as her brilliant covers. She counts ingenious arbiters of good taste like Elton John amongst her legions of friends and fans. Here are five quick songs to get you warmed up on her sound. At the least, she is well worth the look:

A jaunty tune off of her debut self-titled album, "Someday Never Comes" is a simple, sweet elixir of country licks that only starts to hint at Carlile's stellar vocal abilities. It is more of a crooned expression than the all-out battle cry that she unleashes elsewhere. A nice first song for the discerning listener. I have to go away, I've got no reason to stay here, you said someday you'd change, but even a fool will tell you, someday never comes...

Again, here is another song off of her debut record. But there is a better version out there. Carlile recorded a later album fittingly entitled Live From Boston , and one can hear "What Can I Say" as it was truly meant to be heard. It is a lively stage performance, one that includes part of the third part sung by the audience. On a good sound system or headphones, it is an exceptional experience, and shows Carlile in all of her strength and awareness.

A cover of Leonard Cohen's most famous song, "Hallelujah" is a sprawling, eleven-minute rendition sung by Carlile with the orchestral underpinnings of the Seattle Symphony on her latest live record, Live At Benaroya Hall . The combination of Cohen's ingenious lyricism with Carlile's voice and the power of a thirty-piece professional orchestra is something really special to behold. One gets the versatility of Carlile, who has moved here away from her country rock origins to deliver one of the best performances this hymn has ever seen.

Carlile's second album, The Story , was the one that shot her to fame and cemented her as one of the industry's most impressive properties. The most popular song of the album, also named "The Story", was being replayed on most of the major alt rock radio stations across America while some of the other tracks slipped into undeserved obscurity due to the enormity of the single. One of these songs was entitled "Cannonball", a poignant love tune that at once emotes sadness and hope. It is very reminiscent of old western tracks, with soulful backup vocals and a plucky guitar. A masterpiece.

Another one best listened to from the spin of Live At Benaroya Hall , "Before It Breaks" is another cover -- Elton John this time -- and it is the appropriate fifth song for this list. The tune almost seems to have been written for Carlile, and she rightfully makes it her own in a stunning show of breath control and vocal range. This is a singer at her very best, with Carlile singing the story with the honesty one imagines could have only been mustered by its witness. The orchestra comes in here full bore as well, making for one of the more luminescent experiences of modern recorded pop.