I came across "The Story" about two years ago, and having enjoyed that, I turned on what was then her latest album, Bear Creek, and at this point in my music-consuming life, Bear Creek inhabits almost precisely the point in space where I want to be.
"Steal My Sunshine" is the song that inspired me to write about a list of my 100 favorite songs, but "Hard Way Home," Bear Creek's opening track, is the song that inspired me to create the list in the first place. I remember having it on my headphones while I was walking home last year and thinking to myself, "I'm not sure there's a song in the world that I like more than this one right now."
Because all love is on some level irrational, it's tough to explain why I feel this way, but I'll give it a shot.
There is something to be said for Brandi Carlile's unique quality as a vocalist. Her voice gives me a lot of the same chills I wrote about in the entry about Rachael Yamagata, but with an edge and adaptability. You can hear it in "The Story" as she changes the timbre of her voice as she goes up the octave on the last chorus, and while "Hard Way Home" isn't exactly "I Can't Make You Love Me" from a lyrical perspective, but Brandi Carlile makes up for that by getting extra emotional mileage out of her voice, which I'd describe as Van Lear Rose-era Loretta Lynn, but better.
Of course it's not just the lead vocals--"Hard Way Home" has persistent and dense harmonies, which appeal to me because I'm of the opinion that if you can add a harmony to a vocal line and don't, you're just not doing your job right. It's the backing vocals--by Tim and Phil Hanseroth--that kick off the song, sounding almost like a train whistle, and the sense of leaving the station is reinforced by the clapping (which sounds like the clicking of wheels over seams in the track) and the background organ part (which sounds like steam escaping).
Then there's how the chords in this song change. I've written about leaning into chord changes, and here, the rhyhtm guitar hits usually the first beat of a new chord hard, as does the bass guitar, which also climbs from one phrase to the next using (I think this is the right word, but it's also been 10 years since I took music theory, so it might not be) passing tones to connect them.
But "Hard Way Home" isn't my favorite song because it fills out a musical checklist--the musical checklist just happens to be a list of qualities that show up in songs I like, perhaps none more so than this. And even then, trying to reduce music to a checklist doesn't feel like it tells the whole story. Because the real answer to why I like "Hard Way Home" so much, truthfully, is that I just do. I think it's perfect.
"Steal My Sunshine" is the song that inspired me to write about a list of my 100 favorite songs, but "Hard Way Home," Bear Creek's opening track, is the song that inspired me to create the list in the first place. I remember having it on my headphones while I was walking home last year and thinking to myself, "I'm not sure there's a song in the world that I like more than this one right now."
Because all love is on some level irrational, it's tough to explain why I feel this way, but I'll give it a shot.
There is something to be said for Brandi Carlile's unique quality as a vocalist. Her voice gives me a lot of the same chills I wrote about in the entry about Rachael Yamagata, but with an edge and adaptability. You can hear it in "The Story" as she changes the timbre of her voice as she goes up the octave on the last chorus, and while "Hard Way Home" isn't exactly "I Can't Make You Love Me" from a lyrical perspective, but Brandi Carlile makes up for that by getting extra emotional mileage out of her voice, which I'd describe as Van Lear Rose-era Loretta Lynn, but better.
Of course it's not just the lead vocals--"Hard Way Home" has persistent and dense harmonies, which appeal to me because I'm of the opinion that if you can add a harmony to a vocal line and don't, you're just not doing your job right. It's the backing vocals--by Tim and Phil Hanseroth--that kick off the song, sounding almost like a train whistle, and the sense of leaving the station is reinforced by the clapping (which sounds like the clicking of wheels over seams in the track) and the background organ part (which sounds like steam escaping).
Then there's how the chords in this song change. I've written about leaning into chord changes, and here, the rhyhtm guitar hits usually the first beat of a new chord hard, as does the bass guitar, which also climbs from one phrase to the next using (I think this is the right word, but it's also been 10 years since I took music theory, so it might not be) passing tones to connect them.
But "Hard Way Home" isn't my favorite song because it fills out a musical checklist--the musical checklist just happens to be a list of qualities that show up in songs I like, perhaps none more so than this. And even then, trying to reduce music to a checklist doesn't feel like it tells the whole story. Because the real answer to why I like "Hard Way Home" so much, truthfully, is that I just do. I think it's perfect.
