Brandi Carlile and Bonnie Raitt hold court under Gorge full moon
Concert review
It might have been Brandi Carlile's name in the big font - the headliner and hometown host who wrangled all her rowdy friends for a birthday bash for the ages in a place she holds dear. But for at least an hour or so Saturday, as Carlile's Echoes Through the Canyon concerts entered Night 2 at the Gorge Amphitheatre, Bonnie Raitt was running things.
There sat Bonnie the great on a bar stool, casually ripping off one Texas-hot guitar lick after another like the entire Columbia River Gorge was her front porch - her fiery red hair looking like another shade of the golden-orange sunset behind her. The 76-year-old blues rock giant was playing the guitar with sass and substance; her tones have the edge of a pool hall hustler who'll clean you out, wink and buy you a beer with your own money.
"This is a tune I wrote when I was kind of pissed off," Raitt said, gruffly introducing "Spit of Love," an up-tempo blues rocker that could burn up a dance floor or the phone number of an ex who wronged her. "I like to sing it to remind myself never to get in this situation again."
Later, after Wynonna Judd (who's performing Sunday) sneaked upandsurprisedher pal with her presence-only to tragically escape without a duet-Raitt cooled it down. All the grit was gone when she wrapped her timeless ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me" (which Carlile covered a night earlier) around the sold-out crowd like a heartbroken blanket before finishing with a hard-boogieing cover of "Burning Down the House."
"Oh man, I'm not going to forget this night ever," she told the captivated crowd of 22,000, who endured some gnarly lines getting into the venue.
You and a lot of people, Bonnie.
As Echoes vets have come to expect from Carlile's freewheeling, sit-in-heavy affairs, it wouldn't be the last they'd see of Raitt, who followed a heavyweight opening set from Sara Bareilles. Friday night might have been a little heavier on collaborations (Bareilles left early with an illness, Carlile explained), but as hard as everyone went Night 1, Carlile and crew still had plenty left in the tank when they hit the stage Saturday.
Carlile had a little second-night rasp (her "Gorge voice," she joked) that well suited songs like unbridled Southern rocker "Broken Horses," a song practically made for the Gorge, replete with Tim Hanseroth's kerosene-soaked guitars. Less than half of Carlile and the twins' set were repeats from Friday, mainly selections from her latest album, "Returning to Myself," and a few can't-skip biggies like "The Joke" and "The Story."Meanwhile,choice newbie "No One Knows Us" - with its delicate guitar riff that tickles the hair on the back of your neck - was a welcome addition early on.
After Carlile's country supergroup The Highwomen came out Friday for a group-vocal "Crowded Table," Carlile and cohorts Amanda Shires, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby treated Saturday fans to the sharper "If She Ever Leaves Me" - a wickedly clever reframing of sad cowboy motifs through a lesbian lens. Consider it a teaser for Sunday when The Highwomen close out the weekend with Sheryl Crow, Judd and Brittney Spencer.
Other highlights included a stormy "Sinners, Saints and Fools" (dedicated to migrants and immigrants) and a jaw-dropping cover of Alanis Morissettes' "Uninvited," worked up into a deranged, dark-magic maelstrom before the encore. A rearranged version of Who Believes in Angels?" for piano and the mini choir of Carlile, the Hanseroth twins and SistaStrings had mixed results - a fun enough reimagining of the kaleidoscopic rocker that sacrificed some of the song's oomph and brightness for musical theater energy.
More than any other venue (at least one large enough for her to play these days), the Gorge has a way of getting Carlile's nostalgic juices flowing. After a topical, turn-back-the-clock "Looking Out," the birthday girl recalled being young and broke, sitting outside the Puyallup fair eating funnel cake with her girlfriend and listening to Raitt play the grandstand because they couldn't afford tickets.
Half a lifetime and a closet full of Grammys later, Carlile sat side-by-side with Raitt under a full moon, treating a rapt Gorge crowd to a homespun duet of "Love Me Like a Man" to begin a three-song encore together.
"That's it, I can die now," Carlile joked, holding on long enough to sing "Angel From Montgomery" and let the Hanseroths wheel out a birthday cake and quickly serenade the woman of the weekend.
With the completely hushed amphitheater illuminated by thousands of cellphones and that big ol' moon hanging in the Central Washington sky, Carlile and Raitt sent them off into the night with an angel-winged rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now."
Brandi Carlile Night 2 set list
1. "Returning to Myself"
2. "Human"
3. "Broken Horses"
4. "Looking Out"
5. "The Story"
6. "No One Knows Us"
7. "A War With Time"
8. "A Woman Oversees"
9. "That Wasn't Me"
10. "If She Ever Leaves Me" (with The Highwomen)
11. "Who Believes in Angels?"
12. "The Eye" (fan request)
13. "Carried Me With You" (fan request)
14. "You Without Me"
15. "The Mother"
16. "You and Me on the Rock"
17. "Sinners, Saints and Fools"
18. "Church & State"
19. "The Joke"
20. "Uninvited" (Alanis Morissette cover)
21. "Love Me Like a Man" (with Bonnie Raitt)
22. "Angel From Montgomery" (John Prine cover with Bonnie Raitt)
23. "Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell cover with Bonnie Raitt)
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