First Aid Kit On World Cafe

You've been here before. You're staring at fresh cookies through the oven door, they smell so good, you want so badly to eat them, but you have to wait until the timer goes off. And they cool down. Today's session, for me, is like those cookies.

First Aid Kit came through World Cafe headquarters in October. But we had to wait until today - the day their new record Ruins is out — to share it with you. Ding! Cookies. Are. Ready.

First Aid Kit knocked our proverbial socks off with their performance for a few reasons. First, the two women who make up the duo, Klara and Johanna Söderberg, were literally born to sing harmonies together. Then, there's the excitement around their sound, a contemporary take on classic country that sounds distinctly American, even though Klara and Johanna were born and raised in Sweden.

And last, but maybe most importantly, there's the conviction of their ideas. You're going to hear Klara and Johanna perform a song (that doesn't appear on their new record) called "You Are the Problem Here," which they released on International Women's Day last year (on March 8), inspired by a sexual assault case they had read about in the news. When I talked to Klara and Johanna about the song in October, the Me Too campaign (which actually began a decade ago) had started to gain traction. The movement has gotten so much more attention since then, and I can't wait for you to hear it.

This session starts off with one you've been hearing on the Cafe, but haven't heard live! It's First Aid Kit performing "It's a Shame," from their new album Ruins.

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