Singer Brandi Carlile shared several photos of her family on Instagram in the lead up to the 2019 Grammy Awards Sunday night, including rare photos of daughter Elijah.
On Jan. 26, Carlile, 37, shared a photo of Elijah, who was born on March 18, 2018. “I am the mother of Elijah …this one’s cheeky,” Carlile wrote in the caption.
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On Feb. 6, Carlile and her family filed onto a plane to head to Los Angeles for the Grammys. She shared a photo from the tarmac with Elijah cradled in the arms of her wife, Catherine Shepherd. Carlile smiled for the photo while their older daughter, 4-year-old Evangeline Ruth, looked seriously into the camera.
“Who’s the biggest nerd on their way to The Grammy’s?” Carlile wrote in the caption, along with the hashtag, “”squad goals.”
Evangeline made another appearance on Carlile’s Instagram page Saturday. “The award of a lifetime,” Carlile wrote, along with the hashtag “I am the mother of Evangeline.”
Carlile won her first Grammys after earning six nominations and becoming the most-nominated solo female artist this year. Her sixth album, By The Way, I Forgive You, won Best Americana Album and was nominated for Album of the Year. Her single “The Joke” was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and won both Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song.
Despite her long career and critical success, Carlile only had one Grammy nomination on her resume before this year. Her previous album, The Firewatcher’s Daughter, was nominated for Best Americana Album at the 58th Grammy Awards.
In an interview with Out Magazine, Carlile credited her family with giving her the inspiration for her latest music.
“I wouldn’t have nearly the potency as a creator that I do if it weren’t for my wife,” Carlile, who lives in Washington state, said. “My family opens me up, makes me relatively content, and sends me out in the world to get brutalized.”
Carlile is also taking charge when it comes to Americana music being more open to LGBTQ+ artists.
“The good news is that we can change it by actually being harbingers of enthusiasm, excitement, and audacity instead of focusing on criticism without solution,” the singer explained to Out. “That’s not to criticize any way that people change the mechanisms, because they need to be changed regardless, but I think the most effective way is by changing hearts instead of minds and rules.”
By The Way, I Forgive You also includes the single “The Mother,” which was written as a tribute to her daughter.
“Welcome to the end of being alone inside your mind,” Carlile said of the song. “To some, this sounds like the realization of their most sacred dreams — true companionship. For some, this sacrifice is too much to bear and requires its own brand of radical forgiveness. For the most part and for me, it’s equal measures of both. I am not just a mother, but it’s all that I am.”
Photo credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
