The Family Folk Tradition

A global pandemic hasn’t slowed the prolific output of Adrianne Lenker, who released her gorgeous solo collections songs and instrumentals this week, not long after making two of 2019’s most celebrated albums with her band Big Thief. On this episode, Lenker chats with Pitchfork Editor Puja Patel about the music that accompanied her occasionally turbulent journey from childhood as a musical prodigy to adulthood as one of her generation’s greatest songwriters. She touches on an early fascination with jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, a teenage encounter with the songs of Elliott Smith, and the story behind her Leonard Cohen tattoo.