Alela Diane with Shannon Lay

Alela Diane plays The Cedar Cultural Center on Friday, January 22, 2027, with Shannon Lay opening. It's a double bill of two singer-songwriters on one stage, and Diane is coming off her seventh full-length album, Who's Keeping Time?.

That record has a specific story behind it. Diane tracked it live in the attic of her 1892 Victorian home, produced by Sam Weber with help from local musicians—members of Lucius and Blind Pilot, and singer-songwriters Anna Tivel and AC Sapphire. It's a live-in-the-room recording, and that attic setting is where the album gets its name. It's her seventh full-length, and the one she's touring now.

Her work has pulled in a lot of critical attention over the years. Pitchfork, NPR Music, and The Guardian have all written about her, and UNCUT put her among its 50 best singer-songwriter albums of all time, in the same conversation as John Lennon and Joni Mitchell. Consequence called her sound that of a wayfaring troubadour that comes only a few times a generation. It's a long-running career that's gathered a fair amount of weight.

Her return to her music community came in April of the previous year, following the death of her close friend and mentor Michael Hurley, a folk legend and an indispensable presence in the Portland music scene. That loss sits in the background of this period of her work.

Shannon Lay opens the night, and Diane takes the main slot. The show is at The Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis on Friday, January 22, 2027.