On this day · 35 years ago · 1991
35 Years Ago Today: Big Thief's Adrianne Lenker Was Born
Adrianne Lenker was born July 9, 1991, in Indianapolis. Largely self-taught on guitar, she's become one of indie folk's most closely studied fingerstyle players, on a one-of-a-kind acoustic built just for her.
By Tommi, Acoustic fingerstyle desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Adrianne Lenker, lead vocalist, guitarist, and principal songwriter of Big Thief, was born July 9, 1991, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Largely self-taught starting in childhood, she's released six Big Thief albums plus solo records including Abysskiss (2018) and the Grammy-nominated Bright Future (2024). She fingerpicks with a thumbpick and bare fingers, often in open tunings, on a one-of-a-kind Collings acoustic built for her over four years by luthier Aaron Huff.
Self-taught from age eight
Adrianne Lenker was born July 9, 1991, in Indianapolis, Indiana, per Wikipedia. She's the lead vocalist, guitarist, and principal songwriter of Big Thief, and one of indie folk's most closely studied fingerstyle players.
She learned largely from her father, a musician who taught her basic and unconventional chords on guitar starting in early childhood. She wrote her first song at eight, played open mics with her father by 12, and recorded her first solo album, Stages of the Sun, at 13. She later attended Berklee College of Music on a scholarship provided by Susan Tedeschi of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, where she started her first band. In 2015, she formed Big Thief with Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik, and drummer Jason Burger, following the duo record she and Meek had already released together the year before. James Krivchenia, originally hired just to engineer the band's debut album, later joined and replaced Burger on drums.
A guitar built for exactly how she plays
Per Reverb's interview with Lenker and Meek about their touring gear, her main acoustic is a one-of-a-kind Collings SoCo, built over four years in luthier Aaron Huff's free time and gifted to her, designed around the way she actually plays: open tunings and fingerpicking, rather than the strummed, standard-tuning approach most flattop acoustics are voiced for. She fingerpicks with a thumbpick and bare fingers, and has said the guitar "sounds like a grand piano." She's also written all her songs on a separate Martin acoustic and plays a Martin 00C-16DBRE, and she has a custom electric nicknamed the "Flipperkaster," built by luthier Flip Scipio, which she's described as the first electric guitar she's connected with as deeply as her acoustics. Both she and Meek run their guitars through Magnatone Twilighter amps; her pedalboard stays deliberately sparse, built around a Strymon El Capistan tape echo and an Analogman Prince of Tone, because, as she's put it, she'd rather spend years refining her hands than her signal chain.
Counting Masterpiece (2016), Big Thief has released six studio albums total, alongside Lenker's own solo records, including Abysskiss (2018) and 2024's Bright Future, which earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album.
EJ16 Phosphor Bronze Light (.012–.053)
Why this one: A light phosphor bronze set built for exactly the fingerpicked, dynamics-first playing Lenker's own guitars are voiced around, not a claim about the strings on her own Collings.