As the year came to a close, Big Thief received a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album for U.F.O.F. Recorded just days after their sessions for U.F.O.F., the group headed to the remote Sonic Ranch Studios in Texas with Sarlo to lay down the tracks. They spent much of the rest of the year touring North America and Europe, including stops at Norway's Oya Festival and the U.K.'s Green Man Festival before issuing their fourth album, Two Hands. Their third straight album with producer Andrew Sarlo, the more exploratory U.F.O.F., marked the band's debut for 4AD in May 2019. Big Thief's second album, Capacity, arrived that June and reached the Top 20 of the Billboard Heatseekers, independent, Americana/folk, and vinyl charts.

They made their national TV debut with a performance on Late Night with Seth Meyers in March 2017. The quartet's first album, Masterpiece, followed on Saddle Creek in 2016, a year that also saw them make appearances at South by Southwest Festival and in support slots on tours with Eleanor Friedberger, Yuck, Frankie Cosmos, and M. An ambitious double LP, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, followed in 2022. and Two Hands earned considerable praise in year-end polls, plus a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album (for U.F.O.F.). In between Lenker's solo albums, 2019 brought two Billboard 200-charting Big Thief LPs U.F.O.F. The following year's Capacity marked their debut on several charts, including the Independent Albums and Americana/Folk charts. After forming the four-piece Big Thief with James Krivchenia and Jason Burger, they released their first album, Masterpiece, in 2016.

She began releasing solo material as a teen in the mid-2000s before partnering with eventual bandmate Buck Meek on a pair of duo EPs in 2014. The folk-tinged indie rock of Brooklyn's Big Thief is shaped by the very personal songwriting of singer/guitarist Adrianne Lenker.

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