Less than a week after releasing Returning to Myself (Sad Gay Version) — a deluxe edition of her 2025 album Returning to Myself featuring pared-down, intimate recordings of its 10 songs plus a new track — Brandi Carlile brought her Bramily (Brandi Carlile fans) and the sad, gay vibes to the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan.
Considering Stonewall’s history as ground zero for the modern LGBTQ rights movement — a place where generational queer pain and joy exist in equal measure — the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center was a perfect setting for Carlile to celebrate this Sad Gay Version of her Billboard 200 top 10 album.
Sitting down with renowned photographer Collier Schorr (who shot the Returning to Myself album cover) for an insightful chat, Carlile talked about how LGBTQ musicians always bring a “little sparkle” to their sad songs and emphasized the “importance of spaces like [Stonewall]” in today’s political climate. Agreeing with her, Schorr offered a succinct, very queer-coded metaphor for America in 2026: “It’s like, where’s the Emerald City? It’s black and white again.”
After the discussion ended (with Carlile promising to take Schorr halibut fishing), Carlile brought out her band to deliver an hour-long set of the Sad Gay Versions of Returning to Myself, including the contemplative “A Woman Oversees” and the heart-wrenching “A War With Time,” songs about her wife and children, respectively. She also performed her contribution to the Practical Magic 2 soundtrack, a cover of Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes,” and explained how that came about.
“I got a FaceTime from Sandra Bullock,” Carlile shared. When someone in the audience yelled out “hot,” Carlile laughed and replied, “Preach.”
“She knows what she’s doing in a flannel shirt,” Carlile said of Bullock. “She knows exactly what she’s doing when she shows up to a Brandi Carlile concert in a flannel shirt. And I do appreciate it. She asked me to do this song for Practical Magic 2.” Of the latest Bullock and Nicole Kidman film, Carlile added, “I love it so much. I think it’s such an eccentric, weird take on matriarchy and I loved it.”
Oddly, a practical glitch led to one of the evening’s most magical moments. After the sound cut out during “Human” (the new track on her deluxe edition), Carlile and her band offered up a truly acoustic, speaker-free performance of “The Joke” as the tech team worked to get the sound back. That Grammy-winning song is obviously one that Carlile has performed a lot, but hearing her sing it to a small room with no technical amplification made it feel fresh, urgent and honest.
After the show, Carlile joined her Bramily at the Stonewall Inn next door for tequila shots, then headed up to the second floor for “Sad Gay Karaoke.” With help from the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, she belted out Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” before leading the entire bar through a sing-along to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” A tough act to follow, but more than a few brave souls did, with Carlile even popping back onstage to join in on a karaoke version of the Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl.”
The Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, a nonprofit that opened in 2024, is open for free from Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET.
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