‘I’ve waited to stand on this stage since I was 12 years old,” said Brandi Carlile, and somehow, she made her achievement feel like everyone’s success. Within three songs of appearing at the Royal Albert Hall she had invited her 5,000-strong audience to sing along with her. You and Me on the Rock’s evocation of family life became the best wedding karaoke ever.
Carlile has been a voice for the marginalised in the rural roots scene for two decades. But her largest headline show in the UK – part of a five-date UK and Ireland tour climaxing at Glastonbury – suggests her outlier-country is now legitimately mainstream here. Her No 1 album with Elton John played no small part and this setlist paid gracious tribute to her collaborator. She even serenaded him with a yearningly harmonised version of its title track as he sat in his box like a silent angel.
