“Oh, come on,” Brandi Carlile says, motioning me into a booth and pointing to three pizzas on the table between her and her wife, Catherine. “You can’t not have a slice. It’s so good.”

It’s midafternoon in Nashville at the Urban Cowboy Bed and Breakfast, where Carlile is hosting a listening party for her new album, Returning to Myself , and though I just ate lunch, it’s hard to resist grabbing a plate: when Carlile tells you to eat the pizza, you eat the pizza (and she is right). In a few hours, this room will be filled with friends and collaborators like SistaStrings, Brandy Clark and, of course, her bandmates, Phil and Tim Hanseroth, who whoop and cheer while the record plays. By nightfall, she’ll be a few cocktails deep into a karaoke set at lesbian bar the Lipstick Lounge, high-fi

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