Weeks after delivering her seventh full-length as the Weather Station, Tamara Lindeman gave listeners a closer look at new album Humanhood with an acoustic in-store performance at Toronto's Sonic Boom Records late last month.
In the latest in-store session at Canada's largest independent record store, the songwriter performed five songs from her anticipated recent release, while also working in a pair from her acclaimed 2021 album Ignorance. The evening saw Lindeman joined by Ben Whiteley, lending six-string support after playing bass on Humanhood.
Lindeman went beyond her appearance on the cover of Exclaim! magazine's December 2024/January 2025 issue and answered questions from those in attendance. Asked about her instrument of choice at this particular show, the artist shared of her weathered 1954 Martin D18 acoustic, "I only could afford it because someone did a line drawing of Maryland on the back, burned it into the wood."
Asked about the guitar's role in her own artistic pursuits, the songwriter shared how it's an instrument she's returning to after years of beginning her songwriting process at the piano.
Lindeman explained, "When I go to write a song, I think it's nice to have this 'beginners mind.' I don't know what I'm playing; I'm not aware of the chords or the voicings. The moment I start playing an instrument too much, I become too aware and it turns off the creative mind, I find. That's why I started writing on piano in the first place — because I had forgotten how to play it."
Watch Lindeman's performance below ahead of catching the artist on their 2025 international tour. A March 27 show in Montreal gives way to May performances in Victoria (May 15) and Vancouver (May 16), ahead of June dates in Ottawa (June 5) and Toronto (June 6).