Brandi Carlile Calls Performance With Dolly Parton “A Gift”

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Brandi Carlile got to perform with Dolly Parton this weekend at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island, and she still can’t quite believe it happened. 

"It really hit me somewhere in the middle of the night last night, what had happened," Brandi tells “Billboard.” "I was just really overwhelmed, and thinking it was a gift that was bestowed upon me this year.” She adds, “I got to receive that gift. I didn’t feel like it was so much something I did as something I got to have. We all got to have that." 

As for what Dolly has meant to Brandi, she shares, “As a gay icon and probably the first country western singer to ever acknowledge and affirm LGBTQ people in a literary sense, she impacted me, hugely, when I read her book when I was 15,” noting that when she performed with Dolly, “That was a big, full-circle moment for me, and I almost lost it when she pulled me close in that moment.”

  • Brandi adds that all the veteran female artists that joined them on stage for the special Saturday night “The Collaboration” set meant a lot to other artists on the bill. “They all paved the way in one way or another…I’ll just leave it at saying their power was so self-evident,” she explains. “Those big, anthemic ‘90s moments [from] 4 Non Blondes and Indigo Girls, those younger girls knew those songs. We didn’t have to rehearse them -- we knew them, you know? They were, like, in our souls.” 
  • ONE MORE THING! Linda Perry shared some behind-the-scenes footage of Dolly rehearsing with the Highwomen, and it’s pretty amazing. Check it out to the right.

Source: Billboard

 

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