Aoife O'Donovan grew up in Newton, Massachusetts on Joan Baez and Bob Dylan records, spent summers in Ireland singing traditional songs with extended family, and then took the least obvious route into folk music: a degree in contemporary improvisation from the New England Conservatory in 2003. This episode explains why studying how to deconstruct a song's harmonic architecture became her superpower rather than a detour.

The conversation follows her from the Wayfaring Strangers to Crooked Still, a string band formed with bassist Corey DiMario, percussive cellist Rushad Eggleston and MIT graduate student and banjo player Gregory Liszt, then to the folk-noir trio Sometimes Why, the 2011 Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile and Stuart Duncan, Alison Krauss recording her song Lay My Burden Down, and the 2013 solo debut Fos ...