In the beginning, Columbia Records signed Carlile in late 2004 on the strength of songs she'd been recording periodically at home. Released in 2005, Brandi Carlile showcased those early songs along with several newly recorded tracks. Shortly after the release of Brandi Carlile, she left her home in Seattle and set out with the Hanseroth brothers, with whom she'd worked on her earliest recordings and independent regional tours. The tightly knit trio, which forms the core of her band today, spent the better part of two years on the road honing the songs that would later become part of her album "The Story".
In 2005, she was featured on Rolling Stone's "10 Artists to Watch in 2005" list. By the end of 2006, Carlile had embarked on several headlining tours and supported a variety of artists including Ray LaMontagne, The Fray, Chris Isaak, Tori Amos, and Shawn Colvin.
Her second album, The Story, was released in April 2007. It was produced by T Bone Burnett and includes a collaboration with the Indigo Girls on "Cannonball." The album was recorded in an eleven-day-long session with Carlile , the twins (Tim and Phil Hanseroth) and drummer Matt Chamberlain to capture the raw intensity of Carlile's live performances. The crack in Carlile's vocals during the title track, "The Story", came out by accident and was a direct result of the way the album was recorded. Carlile herself describes the vocals as "technically wrong but emotionally right."
Carlile was exposed to a wider audience when ABC's Grey's Anatomy showcased three of her songs: "Tragedy," "What Can I Say," and "Throw It All Away". In April 2007, Grey's Anatomy debuted a version of the video for the single The Story interspersed with footage from the show. On May 3, 2007, a special two-hour episode of "Grey's Anatomy" featured Carlile's song "Turpentine" during footage of the "Grey's Anatomy" spin-off, "Private Practice".
The Stranger at My Door
Brandi Carlile Lyrics
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Watching fires burn from smoke to black
There's nothing she won't burn
From Styrofoam to urns, to someone else's ashes in a sack
You can scorch the metal, you can even melt the glass
You can pass the time here, fire lives into the past
An all-consuming flame, that refines and new begins
But it can take your darkest sins
It's a good ol' bedtime story, give you nightmares 'til you die
And the ones that love to tell it, hide the mischief in their eyes
Condemn their sons to Hades
And Gehenna is full of guys, alive and well
But there ain't no hell for a fire-watcher's daughter
We exercise the demons of the things we used to know
The gnashing of the teeth become the remnants of our homes
We think we're moving on, from materials we long
To forget we ever sold our souls to own
There's a chilling absolution that we're given from our birth
A powerful delusion and a plague upon the earth
But nothing scares me more
Than the stranger at my door
Who I fail to give shelter, time, and worth
Let the good ol' bedtime story, give you nightmares 'til you die
And the ones that love to tell it, hide the mischief in their eyes
Condemn their sons to Hades
And Gehenna is full of guys, alive and well
But there ain't no hell for a fire-watcher's daughter
In Brandi Carlile's song "The Stranger at My Door," she tells the story of the fire watcher's daughter who watches fires burn from start to finish. The daughter is depicted as someone who will burn anything and everything, from Styrofoam to urns, and someone else's ashes in a sack. The song describes how all-consuming flames can refine and create something new out of destruction. Fires can destroy family heirlooms but also provide a way to cleanse oneself of their darkest sins. Brandi Carlile uses this theme to discuss how we must exercise the demons of the things we've known, even if it means losing a part of ourselves. There's a powerful delusion in valuing material possessions, but nothing scares her more than the stranger at her door whom she fails to give shelter, time, and worth.
Line by Line Meaning
I have seen the fire watcher's daughter
I have witnessed the daughter of a person whose occupation is to observe forest fires
Watching fires burn from smoke to black
They watch as the fires progress from moments of light to blackness
There's nothing she won't burn
The fire watcher's daughter will burn anything in sight
From Styrofoam to urns, to someone else's ashes in a sack
Anything from Styrofoam materials to people's cremated remains can be burned by her.
You can scorch the metal, you can even melt the glass
Even metal and glass can be scorched or melted by the fires
You can pass the time here, fire lives into the past
The fires continue to burn, erasing everything in the present so it becomes a memory of the past
An all-consuming flame, that refines and new begins
The flame destroys everything yet presents a new opportunity
It'll take your family heirlooms,
The flame will not stop to leave anything and can even engulf one's family sentimental belongings
But it can take your darkest sins
It can take one's internal misdeeds too, leaving nothing behind
It's a good ol' bedtime story, give you nightmares 'til you die
It's an old tale that instills fear and can plague one till their end
And the ones that love to tell it, hide the mischief in their eyes
People who revel in telling it often hide their deceitful intentions
Condemn their sons to Hades
They condemn their children to eternal misery
And Gehenna is full of guys, alive and well
It means this place is full of men tormented by their sins
But there ain't no hell for a fire-watcher's daughter
The fire watcher's daughter does not fear such place/style>
We exercise the demons of the things we used to know
We try to overcome the evil of our past
The gnashing of the teeth become the remnants of our homes
The struggles of our past become a permanent reminder of what once was our home
We think we're moving on, from materials we long
We try to move on from the things that no longer serve us but still desire them deep inside
To forget we ever sold our souls to own
To even forget that we sold our integrity to possess those things
There's a chilling absolution that we're given from our birth
We are born with a terrible absolution
A powerful delusion and a plague upon the earth
A very strong belief in our beliefs is a disease that afflicts us all
But nothing scares me more
Of everything, this terrifies me the most
Than the stranger at my door
This fear is aroused by an unknown person knocking at my doorstep
Who I fail to give shelter, time, and worth
Someone I ignored and failed to give the attention and value they deserved
Let the good ol' bedtime story, give you nightmares 'til you die
Consider the story as an old fable but also think of them as the tales that can terrorize you till your final breath.
And the ones that love to tell it, hide the mischief in their eyes
Those who enjoy telling these stories often conceal their underlying motives
Condemn their sons to Hades
They curse their kin to spend an eternity in hell.
And Gehenna is full of guys, alive and well
A place full of hopeless people in damnation
But there ain't no hell for a fire-watcher's daughter
But the daughter of the watchman fears nothing
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Timothy Hanseroth, Phillip Hanseroth, Brandi Carlile
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind