Watch Brandi Carlile Perform ‘Church & State,’ ‘Human’

Brandi Carlile returned to the Saturday Night Live stage with performances of two songs from her eighth studio album, Returning to Myself, which she released last week.

The acclaimed singer-songwriter first sang about a “failing empire” in “Church & State,” which she wrote with Andrew Watt and twin brothers Phil and Tim Hanseroth.

Carlile’s first solo album since 2021’s In These Silent Days, Returning to Myself came after years of collaborations—with Elton John and Joni Mitchell—and playing in the country supergroup the Highwomen, as well as being in charge of music festivals like Girls Just Wanna Weekend and her Looking Out Foundation.

“Everybody came out of Covid with all this toxic energy, including myself,” Carlile explained to Rolling Stone in a recent interview. “I just wanted to explode onto the scene and accomplish and collaborate and be everywhere and do everything. And I think there’s been a little fallout from that. People pushed themselves to the limits of their mental health, in terms of what they were willing to do to make up for lost time.”

Carlile, making her fourth musical guest appearance on SNL, also played “Human”—second on the track list of her latest work.

Carlile was most recently on the late night show in early April with John just after the release of their album Who Believes in Angels?

Carlile’s the Human Tour in support of Returning to Myself begins in February on the east coast. That fall, she’ll be in Ireland, the U.K., then mainland Europe.