Singer delivers a concert gift to audience on her birthday

Sorry, folks. You're reading this with a very reasonable expectation: to find out what fast-rising Seattle pop star Brandi Carlile sounded like, Friday night at the Moore Theater.

Sadly, you're not going to get what you deserve, here. It's going to take a much better writer than this one to describe the urgent power that surges from her throat, or to break down her octave range, or explain the nuances in her deliberate hesitations and catches.

The best I can do: Janis Joplin meets an opera singer. A pleasure to the listener that is somewhere between a wonderful meal and a religious experience.

Indeed, when she closed her 90-minute, five-song-encore set with an almost overwhelming version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," it might have been as close to church as some in the audience get. And if music is Seattle's true religion, then Carlile is a redoubtable high priestess. In the hushed pauses between her stirring phrases, you could almost hear souls sighing.

More religion: For the night's penultimate song, Carlile brought her younger sister Tiffany on stage, and the two sang a delicate version of k.d. lang's "Calling All Angels."

A sellout, fired-up crowd (75 percent female) whistled, applauded, cat-called and ate up everything Carlile had to offer, in helping their hero celebrate her 26th birthday. Early in the night, as she CarlileBrandi paused to tune her guitar, several in the audience started singing "Happy Birthday To You," and soon the whole crowd was serenading a blushing Carlile.

Mostly, it was the other way around, as Carlile dazzled the crowd with cuts from "The Story," her breakthrough new album that has cracked the Billboard charts, with 80,000 copies sold in two months. The title song was by far the most rewarding. It's a soaring, shift-changing epic -- written by Phil Hanseroth, who with twin brother Tim forms the core of Carlile's band -- that is a marvelous showcase for this variegated voice.

Midway into the set, Carlile and the Hanseroths (barefoot Phil playing bass to her left, a shod Tim on guitar to her right) stepped in front of the microphones to sing an unamplified "What Can I Say." Result of this naturalistic version: a standing ovation.

While the quieter songs from "The Story" like "Josephine" and "Have You Ever" are wonderful, in concert, some of the middle-of-the-road rockers feel bland or forced. "My Song" was the exception, a rocked-out number that came off as spontaneously explosive.

Brandi Carlile is something of a human jukebox, and could probably sing a pleasing version any song you can imagine. She started the night with an interesting take on Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'," and her encore included Radiohead's "Creep" and a raucous blowout of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues."

Crazy talent.

Tom Scanlon:tscanlon@seattletimes.com.