Brandi Carlile Delivers Electric Performances of 'Right on Time' and 'Broken Horses' on 'SNL'

Brandi Carlile just brought down the house at 30 Rockefeller Plaza!

The 40-year-old Grammy winner held nothing back as the musical guest on this week's episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Jason Sudeikis, where she performed two of the top songs from her seventh studio album In These Silent Days, which dropped on Oct. 1.

First up was the lead single, "Right on Time," which Carlile told SPIN Magazine in September reflects on the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when the song was written.

The country singer passionately performed the first half of the song behind a grand piano at center stage before transitioning to guitar and jamming out with her band for the remainder of the powerful tune.

Her second song of the night, "Broken Horses," shares the name of her recently released memoir. Carlile wrote the song shortly after completing her memoir as the pandemic began, she told SPIN.

"I just had so much more truth to pull into the record," she told the outlet in September.

In the memoir, Carlile recalls the complexities of her early life in rural Washington between her sexuality and religious upbringing. After the book's release in April, Carlile told PEOPLE that she is much "more rooted in my faith" after coming out.

"I feel like I have a deeper spiritual understanding because I have to fight for it," she explained. "It doesn't come easy to me. I don't fit the mold. And in that way, I feel lucky, like I have a more intimate relationship with God than I would if I had an easier time with acceptance around the basic tenets of my faith."

Her experience with religion, she added, allowed her to give herself "permission to leave the parts of [religion] that didn't serve me anymore."

"It pushed me towards rock and roll music and counter-culturalism in a big way," Carlile shared. "And the day it happened, I went home and I listened to 'Hallelujah' by Jeff Buckley and I departed. Music and art was a big safe space for me."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

That said, the artist told PEOPLE that she still felt that she had something to prove: "I don't know if that comes from being in the closet as a kid, but I'm so averse to living a lie that I feel like I'm always needing to tell my truth."

Carlile added, "I'll read an interview or I'll see something about myself and think, 'God, that's not the whole story, though.' Everything in me just wants to demonstrate my humanness as much as I can."