Ann Powers | December 3, 2025 Brandi Carlile has a way of making any performance feel like a tête-à-tête, a deep emotional exchange between friends that just happens to take place in a crowd. Yet the challenge of bringing songs from her gorgeous new album Returning to Myself to the Tiny Desk still shook her.
"It's the kind of thing that really makes your blood run a little cold," Carlile says, laying down her acoustic guitar after the gentle "A War with Time." She then turns to the Roland keyboard mounted on the desktop and begins "A Woman Oversees," a song she and her accompanists had never before performed live.
With its arching gospel melody, the ballad gives Carlile the chance to show how she's fully grown into her voice — in every sense — in the 13 years since she last appeared at the Desk. Back then she was flanked by her bandmates-for-life Phil and Tim Hanseroth, frowning a little as she belted out heartfelt countryish rockers. Now Carlile is a bona fide superstar whose compositions feel like instant classics. She could rest in her fame, but her restless soul keeps leading her into new configurations.
Here, she gives the twins a day off and enlists the string players Chauntee and Monique Ross (aka Sistastrings) and the upright bassist Solomon Dorsey to lend elegance to fresh compositions. She brings her whole self into these songs, like the new album's title track, with its guitar part reminiscent of Heart's Nancy Wilson and lyrics about balancing family and self-care. "Returning to myself is just returning me to you," she sings of her loved ones, and of all of us lucky to witness her evolution.
SET LIST "A War with Time" "A Woman Oversees" "Human" "Returning to Myself"
WATCH an interview with Brandi Carlile on NPR's "Wild Card" here: https://youtu.be/j_OHsKHBW0o
MUSICIANS Brandi Carlile: vocals, guitar, keys Chauntee Ross: violin, background vocals Monique Ross: cello, keys, background vocals Solomon Dorsey: bass, background vocals
TINY DESK TEAM Producers: Bobby Carter, Ann Powers Director: Kara Frame Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell Video Editor: Joshua Bryant Videographers: Kara Frame, Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna Production Assistants: Dora Levite, Dhanika Pineda Photographer: Michael Zamora Series Editor: Lars Gotrich Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed Executive Director: Sonali Mehta Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton
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