Watch Gaelynn Lea Perform Live at Paste Studio

Fiddle player Gaelynn Lea exploded onto the folk scene in 2016 when she won the second NPR Tiny Desk contest, with the video entry of her original song “Someday We’ll Linger in the Sun” rising to the top of more than 6,100 submissions from around the country. Born with
a congenital disability called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or Brittle Bones Disease, Lea performs with her violin positioned like cello, using her Memory Man looping pedal to build winding layers of sound underneath traditional folk, classical and Celtic melodies.

Leading up to her Tiny Desk triumph, Lea had also begun to write more pop-oriented material with a series of collaborators. Together with Low frontman Alan Sparhawk, she formed the group The Murder of Crows, which blended Sparhawk’s melancholy indie-rock with Lea’s folk-classical style. In the past year, Lea has begun touring nationally, and in December 2016 she performed in Europe for the first time as support for Low’s Christmas tour. Now she’s back with a new recording, All Changing Tides, a two-song mini album with a vastly expanded sound—including pianos, guitars and percussion—and all new musical horizons. The record is a preview of sorts to a full-length LP slated for a 2018 release.

Watch Gaelynn Lea perform live at Paste!