The two peerless singers combine for a mesmerisingly queer duet.
Last week on The Kelly Clarkson Show’s inspired ‘Kellyoke’ segment (it does exactly what you’d think), Kelly Clarkson and Brandi Carlile covered ‘Poison and Wine’, a 2009 track by The Civil Wars.
‘Poison and Wine’ is an emotional, folksy duet and one of my favourite songs. The mesmerising harmonies and the alternating lines give the song a heartbreaking simplicity. In a move still so rare as to be newsworthy, Kelly and Brandi chose to sing a song intended as a male-female duet (rather than rearranging a solo song for two voices) and thus created a new addition to the female, queer folksy cannon to be filed on the shelf right there next to ‘Betty’.
Brandi Carlile has spent her career being a queer icon – the queen of Americana with the breathtaking voice and the fantastic collection of shirts and blazers. Songs like ‘Turpentine’ and ‘The Story’ were the nostalgic soundtrack to my university years (after a recommendation from a babyfaced Taylor Swift) and The Highwomen – her all-female country supergroup – were the patriarchy-smashing soundtrack to my 2019. Their romantic track ‘If She Ever Leaves Me’, sung by Brandi, came out literally two days after I did and became the very first example I encountered of what my future could now hold.
Kelly Clarkson, meanwhile, has spent her career being a literal American Idol, blessing us with such iconic hits as ‘Since U Been Gone’, ‘Because Of You’ and – who could forget – ‘Behind These Hazel Eyes’. She’s also been disarmingly relatable, hilarious and all-round great fun, qualities that have finally been fully-realised in her Emmy-winning talk show.
Head over to Facebook and treat yourself to the the glorious blend of voices and yet another cracking shirt.
The Phase 
