Brandi Carlile served as the musical guest on this week’s episode of Saturday Night Live. The lauded singer-songwriter used the appearance to show off a pair of songs from her recently released seventh studio album, In These Silent Days.
In a post on social media ahead of the high profile TV appearance, Carlile looked back to her first time on the SNL stag—by accident, while taping a performance for Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2018. As Carlile noted in the post,
I wandered accidentally into the SNL studio looking for the bathroom! I saw the stage and it took my breath away… I don’t know why but I’ve always seen it as a definitive “ok now you’re a rockstar” moment in a persons musical life…I just HAD to grab a pic on the iconic Saturday Night Live stage. 🤘ONE DAY we’ll get there man! Dreams come true everyday.
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Following an introduction from the episode’s host, SNL alum and recent Ted Lasso Emmy darling Jason Sudeikis, Carlile and her band dove into the defiant, slow-build rocker, “Broken Horses”. With “the twins” flanking her on either side, the performance drifted between close-harmony loveliness and uninhibited energy to thrilling effect.
For her second song, Brandi Carlile offered up a power performance of In These Silent Days‘s opening track, “Right on Time”. The multi-talented artist began the song solo behind a grand piano for an emotional introduction before grabbing her Les Paul and falling back in with her band to bring the performance to an anthemic rock climax. In a show of dynamic mastery, Carlile produced an astounding, heart-wrenching howl on the final “it wasn’t right” before finishing the parable not much louder than a whisper: “but it was right on time.”
Watch Brandi Carlile perform “Broken Horses” and “Right on Time” on Saturday Night Live below. In These Silent Days, the new album from Brandi Carlile, is out now on streaming platforms. Ahead of her performance, Carlile teased a “big announcement coming on Monday” telling viewers to tune into SNL to get “a little bit of a tease.” Attentive viewers saw a simple graphic for the Beyond These Silent Days Tour with the date 10/29/21 and a link to Carlile’s website, where viewers can see a similar graphic. Details for the tour are available here.
Brandi Carlile – “Broken Horses” – Saturday Night Live
Brandi Carlile – “Right on Time” – Saturday Night Live