About That Song: Mother Coyote
About That Song #78
In our special series, singer-songwriter Sarah Morris interviews artists about the songs that shaped them.
Hi! I’m Sarah Morris. I’m wildly in love with songs and the people who write them. There have been a few songs in my life that have been total gamechangers—songs that made me want to be a songwriter and songs I’ve written that made me feel like I am a songwriter. About That Song is a space where I can learn more about those pivotal songs in other writers’ lives.
In the 78th installment of this series, I connected with Andriana Lehr, a South Dakota-born, sometimes Minnesota-based artist who performs as Mother Coyote! We had a great chat about the music and experiences that impacted her songwriting and musical journey.
Mother Coyote. Photo credit: Katina Elizabeth Photography.
Sarah: Hi Andriana!! Oh, it’s always so lovely to get a chance to catch up with you! As lead singer and songwriter of Mother Coyote, you’re celebrating the recent release of your latest EP, the lushly gorgeous When The War Comes, with a special show at Bryant Lake Bowl. I’ve decided this is a perfect excuse to learn more about your musical journey, specifically the songs that brought you to where you stand today.
Do you remember the song you heard that made you want to be a songwriter? Tell us about that song.
Andriana: I’m not sure there was a single song that did it, but I was always into music as a kid, always had a song in my head. I do remember when I was around 7, I got super into “Stay” by Lisa Loeb, and would wander around just singing the same two lines over and over again, much to the chagrin of my family. Then after that it was mostly Jewel (the whole Pieces of You album) and Sarah McLachlan (the entire Surfacing album) that really inspired the budding songwriter in me in my pre-teen/early teenage years.
Sarah: “Stay” is pretty iconic for a certain era of singer/songwriter, along with Jewel and Sarah McLachlan. As much as their music will likely live on forever, I imagine their greater legacy is the amount of songwriting they inspired.
Once you began writing, did you feel like a writer immediately? It took me a few years of writing before I believed it—was there a song that gave you that “a-HA! I AM a songwriter!” moment? Tell us about that song.
Andriana: The first complete song I wrote was at age 13 or 14, and was me coping with the death of my father when I was 12. I remember playing it for my family and they all just kind of sat there like “whoa.” I kept writing after that, a few songs here and there, through high school. I feel like I knew early on that I was a songwriter, but I was always afraid that every song I wrote would be “the last song” because everything I wrote was when the inspiration struck, so sometimes I’d go months and months without writing a song and I’d convince myself I’d never be able to write another song again.
It was actually after you, dear Sarah, invited me to join the Songwriter Challenge back in 2015/2016 that I realized I could write a song about anything (and at any time!), and that it was not just an inspirational talent, but a skill I could build on and exercise like a muscle. That was when the fear that I’d somehow never write again disappeared. So thank you, Sarah!
Mother Coyote. Photo credit: Katina Elizabeth Photography.
Sarah: Oh wow! First, thank you for sharing about your father. Songwriting as coping, as processing of such profound emotion … It’s a big thing to have been able to reach out in that way. And secondly, I’m so glad to hear that the Songwriter Challenge brought you to that beautiful realization. It was always SUCH a joy to get to see and hear you and your new songs.
After years of performing under your given name, this is your first album under Mother Coyote. I’d love to hear more about that transition—what’s been called a “rebirthing.” Was there a song you wrote where you realized this is not Andriana Lehr, this is Mother Coyote?
Andriana: The shift to Mother Coyote was very gradual, but then like a sudden arrival once I really embodied the medicine of what Mother Coyote is (circa 2018). The name came to me back in 2012, as I was contemplating band names for a little Craigslist side-project that wouldn’t last longer than a month, but when it dropped in from the great Muse, I knew it was something. It gestated in the back of my mind for several years as I contemplated what it would be.
The song that I think really got me considering the shift, however, was one I wrote during the winter Songwriter Challenge of 2018. I’d written a few songs on piano, and I remember our mutual friend Ryan (aka Frequency Collisions) commenting to me that he was really digging the piano vibes after I shared the song “Ones and Zeros” (which is on my recording agenda for the next EP). He suggested maybe the piano tunes would be “Mother Coyote” when I was telling him about my conundrum of whether to keep using my government name (which most people say and spell incorrectly—it’s Andriana, pronounced ahn-dree-ahn-uh for those that are curious), and whether Mother Coyote was going to be a band or a side-project or something.
Then when I arrived at my first Ceremoni retreat in the summer of 2018, one year after becoming a mother, it hit me with absolute certainty that I AM Mother Coyote.
Sarah: You are! Yes! In your album’s final track, “Great Unknown,” you sing, “I had a hard time believing I could ever live the life I dreamed, escape the rote, routine machine, but there’s progress I’m seeing in every little synchronicity.” I first encountered that word in 2004, reading Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way,” and it’s held a special kind of magic for me ever since. I loved hearing it sung here, in this soulful stunner of a closer. Can you tell us about that song?
Andriana: Oh I’m so happy you asked about this song! “Great Unknown” was written back in January 2021, and in the music, and most evidently the lyrics, it speaks to a really stunning shift in how I felt about myself and my life that was more clear and optimistic than I ever remember feeling. I’d spent years in therapy off and on since childhood, and that ever only seemed to get me so far in my healing process.
Studying yoga during my teacher training in 2016 moved me a bit deeper, and then the combination of the ego-shattering nature of motherhood, as well as working with my incredible life-coach that I had seen on an individual basis since 2017, and was working with in a group-setting at the time the song was written, really catapulted me into a new level of existence, acceptance, and wholeness that I felt like I’d been searching for my entire life.
This feeling, of course, was fleeting, but I felt like I was able to capture its essence in this song, including the necessary component of surrendering to what is, whether or not it’s what my preference might be at the time, and trusting that it is all working out for what will be the most expansive and soul-deepening experiences that I came into the life to have. And it turns out the more I trust and surrender, the more synchronicities pop up just as fun little easter-eggs of life that let you know that there’s some actual magic in this wild, conscious simulation, or whatever this existence actually is.
Sarah: “This feeling, of course, was fleeting, but I felt like I was able to capture its essence in this song”—sigh … what a beautiful sense of peace this sentence conveys. I think songwriting is specifically valuable in this area. Capturing a fleeting feeling. Allowing us, perhaps, in the performance of the song to lean against it again. Bravo.
On this project, you worked with Andy Thompson as producer. Was there a song/recording that he worked on that led you to his work?
Andriana: Oooh, there very much is a song: “It’s Only Dancing” by Jeremy Messersmith knocked me off my feet after I heard it back in 2014.
Sarah: YES! I love that song!
Andriana: It was all over The Current and I remember listening to the immense orchestration at the end and just getting chills every time I heard it. I was already in pre-production on my last full-length, Artifacts, at the time, but from that time on, I knew I wanted to work with him, and I feel very grateful and fortunate that he agreed to take on When the War Comes with me.
Sarah: Do you have any upcoming Midwest shows where we might hear you sing these songs?
Andriana: The only thing on the books right now for a show-proper is my EP release show at Bryant Lake Bowl on May 29th. Otherwise I’ll be at the Montrose Music Festival in South Dakota July 25–27.
Sarah: Oh, I was hoping to be there, too, but my son turns (gulp) 16 that weekend and I’ll be Momming it up.
Andriana: I moved back to my hometown in South Dakota to be closer to my aging mom back in 2022, and I’ve got two little boys, and a husband that tours full time to pay the bills, so right now playing live is something I’m doing sparingly. I’m working on booking some very intentional shows in listening rooms with attentive audiences for the autumn of 2025, but I also have to balance being needed by my kids while my husband is away.
I’ve seen first-hand the toll that touring takes on one’s physical and mental health, and the price paid for being away from one’s family a lot. My kids are only little once and already have one parent gone for months out of the year, so giving them as much stability and attention at home right now is my highest priority.
But let’s just say if the opportunity is right and aligned, I’m definitely open to whatever the Universe has to offer in terms of live performances. Unlike the version of me from several years ago, the current incarnation of me fully trusts that whatever is meant to be will be, and the roadblocks I’ve been coming up against with trying to book shows for this summer are indicating it’s just not time to push that agenda right now.
Sarah: You are a wise soul, Andriana. Thank you for spending a bit of your time talking with us About That Song, and about that EP. Congrats on your beautiful new work. Wishing you a wonderful summer!
Go see Mother Coyote and celebrate her When the War Comes EP release at Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis on May 29th, 2025! Tickets are $12 advance / $15 at the door for this 21+ show.
Listen to “Great Unknown”
When the War Comes Album Credits
All songs and lyrics written by Andriana Lehr
Recorded by Eric Blomquist
Recording assistant - Kevin Israel at River Rock Studios - Minneapolis, MN
Produced and mixed by Andy Thompson at Instrument Landing - Minneapolis, MN
Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Microphonic Mastering - Minneapolis, MN
MUSICIANS:
Andriana Lehr - vocals
Andy Thompson - piano, keyboards,additional guitars, violin, background vocals
Dan Lawonn - guitar, cello
Ian Martin Allison - bass
Grady Kenevan - drums
Ken Chastain - percussion
Jordan Katz - horns
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Morris. Photo credit: Tom Smouse.
Sarah Morris is a superfan of songs and the people who write them, and a believer that certain songs can change your life. A singer-songwriter / mama / bread maker / coffee drinker who recently released her fifth album of original material, she’s been known to joyfully sing with people in her Big Green Bathroom.
