Twenty years into her career, Diane sees the record as the sound of a musician<\/a> who has the perspective to say what she means. The music industry\u2019s fixation on youth, she said, undersells what age brings to songwriting.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I have a good lens,\u201d she said. \u201cThe things that I have to say now in song and lyrically are definitely informed by having lived more life than when I was writing songs in my early 20s. And I think that\u2019s something in music that should have more value than it does.\u201d <\/p>\n That perspective shaped how the album came together. Diane recorded it in the attic of her own home, live, without a\u00a0click track keeping the beat.\u00a0\u201cI really wanted to do that for this record, as an act of protesting perfection,\u201d she said, \u201cjust making something that only humans\u00a0could\u00a0make together in an imperfect way.\u201d <\/p>\n The\u00a0album\u00a0title\u00a0points\u00a0to\u00a0the collaborative nature of the sessions. \u201cWe are all in it together, keeping that time together, and keeping the song together. There\u2019s no machine in there doing that for us.\u201d<\/p>\n The result is an album that\u00a0is\u00a0both expansive and down-to-earth.\u00a0It\u00a0has earned widespread critical acclaim, including being named MOJO Magazine\u2019s Americana Album of the Month.<\/p>\n Celebrated for its warmth, poetic lyricism and triumphant return to an ensemble-focused sound,\u00a0it was\u00a0produced in collaboration with Sam Weber and\u00a0features\u00a0Peter Lalish (Lucius) on guitar, with Anna Tivel contributing backing vocals and violin,\u00a0Blind Pilot\u2019s Kati Claborn on banjo, clarinet and dulcimer, and Luke Ydstie on backing vocals, lap steel, octave mandolin, Wurlitzer and piano.<\/p>\n Diane has spent much of the past decade balancing music with raising two daughters, now 12 and 9, and said her U.S. career stalled for years after she was dropped by Rough Trade\u00a0after her third record and first pregnancy. <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0.ale_.jpg\")
<\/a>Alela Diane who performs at Soda Bar Aug. 12. (Photo by Camille Bruya)<\/p>\n