Review :: Broken Horses

Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile (✰✰✰✰)

Pro Tip for this one: GET THE AUDIO BOOK! Brandi sings between chapters, and it made the listening experience unforgettable!

I’ve liked Brandi and her music for a long time, and she felt relatable to me all the way through her memoir. I grew up in the Midwest and South listening to country music of the 90s (Faith, Shania, Deana, Lee Ann, Jo Dee) and moved to the PNW in the last few years (where Brandi is from), so it was super interesting to me to hear her talk about experience as a youth listening to country music in the PNW. She also talks about how country music has changed for female artists over the years, and how she feels more at home in the Americana genre. She definitely came from humble beginnings and isn’t shy talking about it or her experience with struggling with school and social norms. She also dives into some of her religious trauma and how that still impacts her today. She is a connector pf people and artists, and I love that she reached so much acclaim later in her life. At one point, she says, “It felt like a midlife beginning rather than a resting point” when talking about some of her more recent experiences and accomplishments.

My only con was I felt occasionally bogged down with music industry names of people and places I knew nothing about. I’m sure folks in the industry are more intimately familiar with most of them, but, as just a fan of her music, I am not. I find this holds true for a lot of memoirs and can be off putting for me as a reader.

Read if you like: Untamed by Glennon Doyle or This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Phillips or Dolly Parton, Songteller

Content: LGBTQIA+ support and badass women :)

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