This episode of World Cafe originally aired on May 7, 2021.
If you’d asked me any time in the last few years for a list of the best, most promising contemporary songwriters, The Weather Station‘s Tamara Lindeman would have always been on that list. Since she began The Weather Station as a mostly acoustic folk project in Toronto, Lindeman’s displayed her gift for intricate, almost stream-of-thought lyrics that range from the minutely personal to the vastly universal. With The Weather Station’s fifth album, Ignorance, Lindeman’s lyricism is as sharp as ever – but she’s also expanded her sound, leaving the purely folk realm to explore more experimental sonic territory.
In this episode, Lindeman joins me to discuss that sound, those lyrics, where the inspiration came from, and where her love of music came from. You’ll also hear live performances of songs from Ignorance, beginning with “Tried to Tell You.”