You And Me On The Rock - Pride Song of the Day - June 13th

“I build my house up on this rock, baby
Every day with you
There's nothin' in that town I need
After everything we've been through
Me out in my garden and you out on your walk
Is all the distance this poor girl can take
Without listenin' to you talk
I don't need their money, baby
Just you and me on the rock…
It's you and me on the rock.”

An anthem for queer domesticity,

Brandi Carlile’s, “You And Me On The Rock,”

The shimmering and whimsical, Joni Mitchell-esque

Dedication to her beloved wife, Catherine,
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Is, in Brandi’s own words, a tribute to the foundation upon which they have built their beautiful life together: 

“Faith and family.” 

“It’s a rock. And it’s solid.”

A hero, a north star and inspiration and icon among the LGBTQ community - and all the other misfit toys who have found their way into her orbit - Brandi Carlile is a guiding light, paving the way for profound hope and change in the world through the power of her extraordinary music, her exemplary life, and seemingly endless activism. 

She is, quite simply, one of this generation’s greatest champions of all that is good and beautiful and right in the world.

In an interview with Variety about “You And Me On The Rock,” the nine-time Grammy award winner and New York Times’ Best Seller, stated:

“It’s not that LGBTQIA people should have to be overexerting ourselves to come across as more wholesome than anybody else, but when the culture wants to overtly sexualize and demonize queer people by calling us groomers and making out that we just live these lives of total sex-focused promiscuity, which couldn’t be further from the truth, a song like “You and Me on the Rock” is important, if you recognize it as an anthem of queer domesticity. It’s about building your house on a foundation that you can be happy in. It’s about the right to not be alone for all of your life. And to those that would kind of dismantle that dream and that inalienable human right, I think that song is a protest song, just in its sweetness.”

Playing around on a dulcimer in an effort to break out of their “normal rhythms,” when Brandi and the twins (her bandmates and family, Phil & Tim Hansroth) wrote, “You And Me On The Rock,” the idea was to “really embrace the Joni thing,” so fitting for a tribute to Catherine who, according to Brandi’s telling in her brilliant memoir, Broken Horses, was the one who introduced Brandi to Joni, insisting on them absorbing Blue together, and sparking Brandi’s unyielding love and passion for Joni and her music.

Though the choice to leave out the dulcimer in the recording was made by Brandi and her dear friends - and fellow producer extraordinaires - Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings, the spirit of Joni, and the love her music represents between Brandi and Catherine, shines brightly all over the track.

Also accompanied by the sweet and impeccable vocal harmonies of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig - of the indie folk-pop duo, Lucius - on the single and the original In These Silent Days album version, “You And Me On The Rock” not only stands alongside the other brilliant songs at the top of Brandi’s illustrious catalog, but also as one of the most unique and beautiful queer anthems to come out in recent years.

Pride is not only about celebrating the beauty and joy of queer love and queer life.

It’s about normalizing it.

Tearing down the stigmas and misconceptions.

As Brandi says herself, “You And Me On The Rock” is one of the most gleeful “protest” songs ever written, as it stands as a testimony against those who wish to demonize members of the LGBTQ community as groomers or depraved, promiscuous, sex-obsessed heathens or pedophiles. 

It’s an anti-hate song.

And in the most cheerful and romantic fashion, Brandi once again has found a way to step up in the face of the haters to say, actually… 

This is what it looks like.

We simply love who we love.

Just like anyone else.

And we truly want is to have the right to celebrate our love with the same freedom and abandon and joy as everyone else.

We’re not here to harm or take away anything from anyone else.

This is just who I love. 

Our foundation is “faith and family.”

“It’s a rock. And it’s solid.”

And there’s nothing more noble or beautiful - or worth celebrating - than that.

Make sure you check out the fabulous “You And Me On The Rock” music video below, check out the alternate version of the track released on Brandi’s In The Canyon Haze where Catherine herself sings along with Brandi! Also make sure to pick up copies of In These Silent Days, In The Canyon Haze, as well as all of Brandi’s other albums from your local, independent record store, AND, to stream her entire, incomparable catalog on your preferred music streaming platform.