For years now, I have been listening to the supposedly gay Brandi Carlile. Now, you may be wondering why I mentioned she was “gay.” Well, to listen to an artist and share something like your sexuality, it’s easy to put yourself in the story and make it your own. A friend from Seattle sent me a disc of Brandi’s live music and from the moment I heard the first note, I knew I was going to love it and it would impact my life in profound ways.

Now, let me take you back to my younger years. And, by younger years, I mean MUCH younger than I am now. I had a crush infatuation with Reba McEntire. Now, wait a minute before you judge. She was a hot mess back in the day, at least, she was to my pre-teen mind. I listened to her music constantly, old stuff, new stuff, and everything in between. I couldn’t relate to about 98% of her music being as young as I was, but I tried. I couldn’t tell you at this point what the infatuation was with Reba. I look at her now and think to myself, what were you thinking? She is a decent artist, and she is a very beautiful person, but why Reba?

Then, along came Brandi. When I started listening to Brandi, I felt exactly the same way that I felt when I listened to Reba as a kid. Lame? Kinda. But, I realized that it wasn’t infatuation that I was feeling, it was inspiration. Brandi inspires me, and she does it beautifully with her lyrics and her music. Her music can be assimilated with many different areas of my life. She has pulled me through tough times, and she has the ability to light up a room with her voice.

Music is an important part of my life it is also something that brings my partner and I together. We share the same love for Brandi Carlile and many other music artists out there. But, Brandi helps tell our story.

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
It’s true…I was made for you

I climbed across the mountain tops
Swam all across the ocean blue
I crossed all the lines and I broke all the rules
But baby I broke them all for you
Because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
You do
I was made for you

You see the smile that’s on my mouth
It’s hiding the words that don’t come out
And all of my friends who think that I’m blessed
They don’t know my head is a mess
No, they don’t know who I really am
And they don’t know what
I’ve been through like you do
And I was made for you…

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
It’s true…I was made for you