Laura Veirs has plenty on her plate. The Portland-based singer/songwriter has two decades of wondrous albums to her name. She tours regularly. She’s a mother to two young children, and she’s married to busy record producer Tucker Martine, who works with big names like My Morning Jacket and Beth Orton.
Two years ago, Veirs collaborated with k.d. lang and Neko Case on a collection of lovely folk-pop songs. In January, she released her first book (Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten) and unveiled a podcast, Midnight Lightning, about the lives of working musicians who are also parents. While she found the podcast incredibly rewarding, it was also a ton of work on top of all the other stuff. Veirs isn’t sure whether there’ll be a second season.
“I need to focus my energy,” she says. “I have limited energy and limited focus, so what is it that I want to focus on?”