On February 28, 2006, when Lenker was 14, she released her first solo album, Stages of the Sun. She attended the Berklee College of Music on a scholarship provided by Susan Tedeschi of the Tedeschi Trucks Band. She dropped out of Santa Cruz High School halfway into her sophomore year, moved back to Plymouth, and got her GED at the age of 16. She moved to Santa Cruz for a year and a half, living with a family friend and working at a local McDonalds. Her other interests included studying martial arts, and she was the state karate champion three years in a row. Lenker wrote her first song at the age of eight, and recorded her first album at age 13. She spent a summer traveling throughout the midwest and living out of a Ford cargo van. Her parents rented homes in Coon Rapids, Nisswa, and Bloomington, Minnesota, before settling down in Plymouth, Minnesota, where she lived for 10 years, excluding a brief time spent in Santa Cruz, California.
Lenker was born in Indianapolis and was raised in a Christian cult until the age of four, but primarily grew up in Minnesota. She is the lead vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter of the band Big Thief.
Adrianne Elizabeth Lenker (born July 9, 1991) is an American musician.
