Illustration: Lauren Tamaki Brandi Carlile defies categorization — she is country, she is pop, she is Americana — but most of all, she’s out to make the world a better place. The 39-year-old singer-songwriter has produced six studio albums, established an all-female-fronted music festival, teamed up as one of The Highwomen, and just won her sixth Grammy. She also started a foundation that supports nonprofits addressing everything from racial justice to homelessness.
Later, we take turns making lunch. As a family, we take a hike out in our woods, or go work in our garden, and spend some time in the middle of the day together. Usually in the rain, because of where we live. I go back out to the studio for the evening and I usually make dinner. We cook breakfast, lunch and dinner here, because we don’t have restaurants or Uber Eats. Nobody delivers [this far from Seattle] — not even pizzas. Later, we get the kids to bed and watch movies, play music, talk politics until our eyes close. I make a big fire before we go to bed, and dampen it down for the night, so that when we wake up the house isn’t cold.I live in the same log cabin that I bought when I was 21.
We bought an aluminum fishing boat at the beginning of COVID. We named it Captain Fantastic, after Elton John. There’s a big bed in the front and we all sleep there together. We got a pot puller, so we catch shrimp and Dungeness crab and lingcod and sea bass and salmon and halibut. We camp out in these little San Juan Island coves. We roll up, get tied up on a buoy, get the barbecue going, and listen to music. The kids jump in the water and play on kayaks.
brandicarlile I love her.