Lindsay Anderson
Angela James
We’re excited to host an evening with two of Chicago’s finest songwriters with their respective ensembles, Lindsay Anderson and Angela James!
Lindsay Anderson will take us on a 12-song conceptual journey inspired by the romantic and artistic entanglement of surrealist painters Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst. Moved by Carrington’s autobiographical text Down Below, Anderson delves into themes of love, artistic identity, power dynamics, and feminine self-reclamation. Drawing parallels between her own experiences as an artist and muse, Anderson reflects on the challenges of defining one’s voice within male-dominated creative spaces. Her songs become a medium for reclaiming that voice—fusing autobiography with myth, dream logic, and archetypal storytelling. “While my creative and romantic relationships have formed me as an artist, they’ve also distanced me from my true voice,” she says. “This project is about reclaiming that voice, and reshaping the narrative on my own terms.”
In this body of work, Anderson inhabits characters like Lewis Carroll’s Alice—no longer innocent, but older, restless, and yearning for meaning. In a Wonderland turned darker and more coercive, she meets the Wolf, a seductive figure inspired by Carrington’s paintings, and navigates the liminal space between desire and self-liberation. At its core, her latest album is a love story—intense, impractical, and timeless—between two artists navigating creation, intimacy, and loss. Through her music, Anderson invites listeners to join her on a journey that is both deeply personal and universally human: a meditation on embracing shadow as part of wholeness and finding one’s true self in the process.
Angela James' voice elicits comparisons to classic country artists Patsy Cline and Hazel Dickens, while her emotionally forthright songwriting and penchant for experimentation place her directly in the present. Over the span of 4 records and a 10 year career, her work speaks to horizons in progressive Americana in a way that feels both indebted to and freed from the strictures of time. Her music has been called “smoldering and gorgeous” by the Chicago Reader and featured in the Chicago Tribune, NPR, and Tiny Mix Tapes (RIP), among others. Her latest project is a conceptual cycle of songs imagining the lives of her matrilineal ancestors she's never met. Born and raised in TN, with sojourns in Mississippi and Brazil, James is a hospice nurse and lives in Chicago with partner, visual artist/organizer Jordan Martins, and is a proud caregiver to a nine-year-old daughter.
$15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door
Artist Bios
Lindsay Anderson is a Chicago-based singer, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist whose work explores the intimate and mythic terrain of human emotion, transformation, and identity. Her music blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy, weaving deeply personal narratives with symbolic and surreal imagery. Through lush, atmospheric arrangements and introspective lyricism, Anderson creates sonic landscapes that are both tender and otherworldly.
As co-founder of the Chicago group L’Altra (Aesthetics, Hefty, St. Marie Records, Talitres), Lindsay has released six full-length albums and six EPs / singles. Her performances have reached audiences around the globe, and her talents—voice, lyrics, and instrumentation—have contributed to a wide array of collaborations with artists such as Telefon Tel Aviv (Ghostly, Hefty), Wrekmeister Harmonies (Thrill Jockey), Edith Frost (Drag City) and others. Her 2018 album, “Algorithm of Desire” (Flau), released under the name Same Waves, serves as a precursor to her newest body of work.
Anderson has shared the stage with artists such as Cowboy Junkies, Todd Rundgren, Wilco, Cat Power, Damo Suzuki, and Drag City artists Edith Frost and Bonnie Prince Billy. She holds a BA in English and Spanish from the University of Colorado and brings a multidimensional background including five years of classical voice training and a foundation in ballet.
Based in Evanston, IL she continues to perform regularly. Her music is often described as ethereal and spiritually charged — sonic dreamscapes shaped by Wurlitzer, Rhodes, piano, synths, and echoing vocals and guitar. Critics have likened her sound to a Rothko painting: abstract, immersive, and emotionally stirring. Anderson's genre-blurring compositions move from dream pop to neo-classical to indie rock, always through an autobiographical lens. Her storytelling invites listeners into intimate reflections on identity and connection — spaces for solace, healing, and transformation.