This was the album that Brandi Carlile always wanted to make. More often that not, you’d file a statement like that under “cliche” and move on, but with the 20-something songstress it’s completely true.

The songs that populate Carlile’s recently-released album, The Story, have been sitting around for literally years. Road tested but unrecorded, these were the pearls Carlile and bandmates Phil and Tim Hanseroth had kept in reserve at the advice of informal mentor Rick Rubin, co-head of Columbia Records.

Now, after a still-successful self-titled debut, Carlile and Co. are showing them off on their major label debut for — surprise, surprise — Columbia Records.

From the finished product, it sounds like Rubin might know a thing or two. With a voice that blends the sweetness of Joni Mitchell with the strength of Janis Joplin, Carlile steps into the spotlight on Story. Having already placed several songs on taste-making TV show “Grey’s Anatomy” and been named one of Rolling Stone’s “Artists to Watch” for 2005, Carlile and the Hanseroth twins are currently headlining the VH1 You Oughta Know Tour.

The show hits 9:30 Club this Friday, Sept. 28. Doors open at 5 p.m.