Brandi Carlile, who grew up near Seattle and is a diehard Seattle Seahawks fan, will be singing “America the Beautiful” before the Super Bowl on Sunday. Carlile is part of a diverse group of performers, including Charlie Puth, Coco Jones, and Green Day, who will sing in the run-up to the game and to the much-debated Bad Bunny halftime show.
Over the past 20 years, Carlile has become one of the leading singer-songwriters and in-demand producers in the fields of Americana, folk rock, and alt country. She has garnered eleven Grammy Awards and two Emmys.
One of the hallmarks of her career has been collaboration. Carlile has worked with many of the biggest names in the recording industry as both performer and producer. Everyone from Tanya Tucker to Hozier, Willie Nelson to Miley Cyrus. In honor of her upcoming Super Bowl appearance, here is a chronological list of seven of her very best collabs.
Brandi Carlile – 7 sensational collaborations
“Angel From Montgomery” with Kacey Musrgaves (2017)
Carlile has done a formally released cover of the John Prine classic alongside Buddy Miller and the Lone Bellow from the Cayamo concerts in 2016. It’s a lovely version. But for my money, her unreleased version sung with Kacey Musgraves at the same concert the following year is the best.
The easy friendship between the two supremely gifted singers results in a wonderfully human moment when Musgraves flubs a line. When Brandi calls on her powerful voice in the third verse, it is transcendent. The performance exists in multiple versions on YouTube.
“Travelin’ Light” with Dierks Bentley (2018)
Carlile shows she can do up-tempo country rock with some strong bluegrass influences. She controls her voice to let Bentley have the lead, but provides effervescent support whenever she joins in.
“If She Ever Leaves Me” with the Highwomen (2019)
Carlile and Amanda Shires put together a supergroup of female country singers in 2019 to replicate and build on the success of the iconic Highwaymen of the 1980s. Their album features one great song after another from Carlile and Shires, as well as fellow Highwomen Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby, and guests Yola and Sheryl Crow.
Carlile takes the lead on this poignant love song written by Shires and her husband at the time, Jason Isbell, while the others sing harmony on the chorus. Carlile likes to call it the first lesbian country love song.
“You’re Not Alone” with Allison Russell (2022)
Russell originally performed this song on a 2019 album by Our Native Daughters, a group that featured, among others, Rhiannon Giddens. On this single, she and Carlile sing together and in support of each other to create a glorious, uplifting concoction. Backed by the soaring of Sista Strings, this climbs higher and higher, in both English and French.
“Dear Insecurity” with Brandy Clark (2023)
Carlile produced Clark’s self-titled album in 2023 and joins her on this sweetly haunting paean to self-doubt, which has all the classic beauty of a great American torch song. Clark has been one of country music’s great songwriters for many years, but here, Carlile blends in to let Clark shine as a performer. They won a Grammy for this performance.
“Carey” with Joni Mitchell (2023)
As fantastic as she is as a performer, Carlile’s greatest gift is as a facilitator. She brings together artists with the goal of fostering collaboration. She has done it throughout her career, and it was never as apparent as what she did with one of her idols, Joni Mitchell, over the past four or five years.
She began organizing sessions with the icon and eventually inspired Mitchell to return to the stage at Newport. Joni Mitchell at Newport, released in 2023, is a valuable document of one of North America’s greatest songwriters as well as a fun show. Carlile gets to sing lead on “Carey,” originally on Mitchell’s legendary Blue album in 1971.
“The Rose of Laura Nyro” with Elton John (2025)
From one music giant to another – from Joni Mitchell to Elton John – it says something that so many of the rock era's greats are eager to sing with Brandi Carlile. This is the first track from the album Carlile, which John collaborated on last year.
They wrote together and sang together. This epic track, which begins with a long musical prologue before getting to the vocals, rivals John’s great work of the early ‘70s.