Dawn Landes On World Cafe

"Who are you and why are you calling me?" According to Dawn Landes, that's what Country Music Hall of Famer Fred Foster said when she rang him up out of the blue and asked Foster to produce her new album. Foster founded Monument Records, he signed Dolly Parton and he produced most of Roy Orbison's hits in the 1960s. These days, he's in his late eighties and mostly retired. Landes explains how she won Foster over and performs live songs from the album they made together called Meet Me at the River.

Landes' voice and her songwriting sound like such a seamless fit for classic Nashville, but she's only just recently moved to Music City after a long stint in New York City. She also has an incredibly broad creative output, including recording indie pop, folk and a French album, collaborating with Sufjan Stevens and Norah Jones and working on a musical inspired by the life of Tori Murden McClure, who dreamed of rowing across the Atlantic in a small boat.

Hear our complete session in the audio player.

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