Carlile's 'Returning to Myself' is her most distinct album yet

Over the last handful of years, Brandi Carlile's musical family tree has grown at a rate that would alarm dendrologists.

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Since releasing her last solo album in 2021, the Grammy-stacking singer-songwriter, producer and one of music’s most voracious collaborators has helped folk icon Joni Mitchell return to the stage, cut a duo album with hero-pal Elton John and produced records for numerous other artists, including fellow Washingtonian Brandy Clark.

There's no small amount of selflessness in ensuring artists like Mitchell and Tanya Tucker receive their flowers, helping others realize their artistic visions or challenging country music's boys club with 2019 supergroup the Highwomen. But it hasn’t been entirely altruistic.

“I really love joining up to other people, like really super going all in,” Carlile said, laughing. “One of my favorite things to do with my voice is to wrap it around another voice and watch it change; watch my vibrato sync up to another person's vibrato and my pitch acquiesce to (theirs). It's how I love music, through the context of harmony and collaboration. Just like anything you love, you can take that too far. And I may have just taken it a bit too far.”