June 1: singer and songwriter Brandi Carlile 30 years-old today.

Carlile began learning to play the guitar and write songs at fifteen. At sixteen, she began to perform as a backup singer for an Elvis impersonator.

Before signing to a major record label, performed in local Seattle establishments like The Crocodile, Tractor Tavern, and Paragon with Tim and Phil Hanseroth. Carlile sold her self-released recordings while she busked.  Carlile began to attract the attention of the music industry after Dave Matthews heard her band perform at the 2003 Sasquatch! Music Festival.

Columbia Records signed Carlile in late 2004 after hearing her recordings. Her 2005 major label debut, Brandi Carlile included some of those songs as well as newly recorded tracks. After the release of Brandi Carlile, she went on tour with the Hanseroth brothers for almost two years, where they worked on songs that became part of her second Columbia 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 toured as both a warm-up act and as a headliner.

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 11-day long session and tried to capture the sound of her live performances. (The crack in Carlile's vocals during the title track, "The Story," came out by accident and stayed on the record.)
Carlile describes the vocals as "technically wrong but emotionally right." She would also contribute vocals to "Last Tears" from Indigo Girls' Despite Our Differences.

ABC's Grey's Anatomy featured 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 3 May 2007, a special two-hour episode of the show featured Carlile's song "Turpentine" during footage of the Grey's Anatomy spin-off, Private Practice.

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"The Story" has also been featured in a General Motors commercial aired during the Beijing Olympic Games, as well as in a Super Bock commercial.

In November 2007, Carlile visited England for her first UK gig at the Borderline in London. In February 2008, Carlile performed as special guest to Newton Faulkner on five of his UK tour dates. During March and April 2008 Carlile toured through Australia with Maroon 5 and OneRepublic. In April 2008 she played four dates in the UK and was a guest performer on the BBC2 show, Later... with Jools Holland.

Her third studio album Give Up the Ghost was released on October 6, 2009. The album debuted at #26 on theBillboard 200. The album was produced by Grammy Award winner Rick Rubin and contains a collaboration with Elton John titled "Caroline."

English singer Adele covered The Story's hidden track "Hiding My Heart" on a bonus edition of her 2011 album 21.

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In January 2010, Carlile's Looking Out Foundation partnered with the Seattle Police Department, the Indigo Girls and two local Seattle self-defense studios to fund and support the Fight the Fear Campaign. The campaign was inspired by the assault on a local Seattle woman and her partner in their South Park home and will provide free self-defense lessons to women in at-risk communities throughout 2010.

Also in 2010, Carlile contributed the track "The Heartache Can Wait" to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation: More Hope For The Holidays album.  Proceeds from this album go to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

In a November 14, 2002 interview with The Western Front, the official newspaper of Western Washington University, Carlile identified herself as a lesbian.

In an October 17, 2009 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Carlile said; "I hope that somewhere in Small Town, USA, a 15-year-old kid looks to me as a role model the way I looked at the Indigo Girls and Elton John as role models...and I hope they also recognize that the reason why I don't have to have a lot of formality around it, the reason why I don't have to wear it on my sleeve and make a spectacle of it, is because there were people before me who paved the way so I wouldn't have to."


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June 1: Alanis Morissette is 37 years-old today.

Alanis Nadine Morissette was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She has won 16 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards, was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and has been considered for an Academy Award nomination.

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When she was a teenager, Morissette recorded two dance-pop albums for MCA Records Canada. In 1991 they released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album. When it was released, she was credited simply as Alanis. The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot,” reached the top twenty on the RPM singles chart.

Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top forty. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada. The album garnered three 1992 Juno Awards nominations; Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording - both for "Too Hot" – and Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year which she won.

In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a simpler, ballad-driven record. As with Alanis, Now Is the Time was released only in Canada and produced three top forty singles—"An Emotion Away,” the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" and "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time.” It only sold about half as many copies as her first album. Morissette was left without a major label contract and was little known outside of Canada.

After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto to help her develop as a song writer and performer. After she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he let her use his studio. The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records - the only recording company that expressed interest in her.

Maverick released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. When a DJ from KROQ, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know,” the album's first single, The song's scathing, explicit lyrics generated immediate attention. A music video of the song went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.

After the success of "You Oughta Know,” the album's other hit singles helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand In My Pocket" followed, but the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic,” became Morissette's biggest hit.

"You Learn" and "Head over Feet,” the fifth and sixth singles, respectively, kept Jagged Little Pill in the top twenty on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year.

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According to the RIAA, Jagged Little Pill is the best-selling international debut album by a female artist, with more than 16 million copies sold in the U.S.; 33 million worldwide. It became the third biggest selling album by a female artist, and the biggest selling debut album old internationally.

Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 1996 Grammy Awards, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.

Morissette recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never officially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. Since then, she has released three more albums, Under Rug Swept in 2002,
So-Called Chaos in 2004, and Flavors of Entanglement in 2008.

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In 1986, Morissette had her first acting gig; twenty episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. Since then she has appeared on numerous TV shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sex and the City and Weeds. In 1999, she appeared as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack.

It has been announced on Morissette's website that she will be starring in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth.

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