Second Cup Café: Brandi Carlile

Like k.d. lang and Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile's smokey, agile voice rests in that sweet spot where blues, country and folk meet.

Carlile visits Second Cup to share songs from her sophomore album, "The Story."

Columbia Records signed Carlile, 25, in late 2004 and shortly after the release of her self-titled debut she hit the road for two years in support of the album.

With Tim Hanseroth on guitar and his twin brother Phil on bass, the Brandi Carlile band headlined several tours and opened for Chris Isaak, The Fray, Tori Amos and Shawn Colvin, among others.

When she set out to make "The Story," Carlile decided to record live to tape, shunning the standard practice of having musicians record their parts separately and overdubbing the best takes into one perfect track.

"When you record to tape, it forces you not to dwell on small imperfections and keep a lot of the things you would usually edit out ... like a weird breath or a strangely sharp note," Carlile explains in press notes for the album. "When I listen back and hear those things now, I'm glad we didn't take them out because they give this album a real human character."

Carlile's songs "Tragedy," "What Can I Say" and "Throw It All Away" were featured on an episode of "Grey's Anatomy."

A new edit of the video for "The Story," combining season highlights from the hit series with Brandi's performance of the song was featured in a one-hour special, "Grey's Anatomy: Every Moment Counts" in April.

Her appearance on the show earned her a host of new fans, and now Carlile is selling out theaters on her U.S. tour in Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis and elsewhere.