It's difficult to view the still-young career of Brandi Carlile and not be tempted to name-drop a bit.
Sure, the Seattle-area songstress with a pop sound that reflects considerable folkish introspection has fortified a substantial national following during the course of three albums on Columbia. Her songs, not to mention the commanding clarity of her voice, have a personal mark that borders on the confessional.
But look at the guest list on her new album, Give Up the Ghost. It was produced by Rick Rubin, it was cut at the Hollywood studio (Sunset Sound) where The Doors and Led Zeppelin once recorded, and it features help from drummer Chad Smith (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), pianist Benmont Tench (from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), vocalist Amy Ray (from Indigo Girls) and a fellow pop stylist by the name of Elton John.
That's some mighty company. But before plans were firmed up on how to best use her musical pals, Carlile had a more personal mission: to create songs that were as emotive, fresh and absorbing as those on her self-titled 2005 debut album.
"I wanted to make a third record that sounded like a first record," said Carlile, who performs Monday at The Kentucky Theatre for WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour. "Certainly life itself writes your first record. You have first love, loss and coming of age. You have the big question of what you're going to do with the rest of your life. All of these things are fodder for a great first record. Then you have a tour bus and the happenings of the road, which is fodder for a second record. The trouble there is while that may be really exciting to someone living that life, to everyone else it is sort of an unobtainable topic.
"So at that point I had to kind of pop into an exercise in songwriting. I had to find a way of writing about bigger and deeper things in our environment at the moment. Although I'm a proponent of internalized songwriting, I also come from a school of thought that a great lyricist connects with the best audience. Take Bernie Taupin, who is my favorite lyricist of all time. He writes story songs — works of fiction. It takes a deep writer to actually pull from something that's outside of yourself."
For Carlile, such a quest began on her second album, 2007's The Story, which was produced by Americana entrepreneur T Bone Burnett. (There we go with the name-dropping again.)
"T Bone was kind of this vibe facilitator," Carlile said. "At that time he was also choosing the music for the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss record (the multiple Grammy-winning Raising Sand). He had this library, this plethora of bluegrass and Delta blues music that we kept listening to, even if it had nothing to do with the music we were about to play. It was always setting the mood.
"T Bone Burnett was kind of a picture taker. He documents what's there and tries to shine the best possible light on it. Rick was more of an extractor."
Rick, of course, is Rubin, the veteran producer who has handled, just in recent years, recordings by everyone from Metallica to Neil Diamond. And by "extractor," Carlile meant that Rubin tries to bring a performance out of an artist that, she said, "may or may not be there."
But Rubin also brought Smith and Tench, among others, to the sessions. But Elton John, a lifelong pop idol? Carlile went after him herself. Recruiting the veteran piano man for the light, honky-tonkish tune Caroline on Give Up the Ghost proved surprisingly easy.
"I wrote him a letter asking him if he would play on it, and he responded that he would. It was that simple. I reached out to him and he agreed.
"Elton John is my greatest hero. And Caroline was so reminiscent of the piano style that he used on those great early albums like Tumbleweed Connection."
The John connection didn't stop there. Another song from Give Up the Ghost, Pride and Joy, boasts a string arrangement by Paul Buckmaster, who scored all of John's hit albums from the early '70s.
"Everybody throws around that word genius all the time. It can be nauseating. But Paul is the reason that word applies. To get to work with him on this record was more that just the realization of a dream. It was an experience greater than anything I could have hoped for."
Making music with personal heroes is one thing. But the voice on Give Up the Ghost still very much belongs to Carlile. Now her mission is to show off her own music with her own band, just as she has done since playing Seattle clubs while in her teens.
"It's all about tenacity," Carlile said about taking Give Up the Ghost on the road. "It's all about the fact that we want to do this. And so we do. If you want something bad enough and work at it hard enough, eventually you will get what you need out of it."
