Lera Lynn's big break arrived in 2014, when she was cast as a moody lone troubadour in the second season of HBO's dark crime drama True Detective. Her desolate Lynchian scenes suggested a spare, skeletal singer/songwriter, but Lynn's music is richer than that: she draws equally from classic country and literary Americana, creating an ethereal spell from roots music. She added a touch of earthiness on 2016's Resistor, a move that helped put her gifts as a songwriter in sharper perspective. From that moment forward, Lynn started to broaden her musical horizons, a journey that began with the collaborative 2018 album Plays Well with Others and extended through her largely solo set On My Own in 2020, then culminated with the gentle, soft-focused 2022 record Something More Than Love.

A native of Houston, Texas, Lynn played music as a teenager but decided to major in anthropology when she attended the University of Georgia. Eventually, she was drawn to music, releasing an independent debut called Have You Met Lera Lynn? in 2011. The record received some acclaim -- its song "Bobby, Baby" won the Chris Austin Songwriting Competition at 2011's Merlefest, and the record helped her win Best Country Artist at her local Flagpole Music Awards in Athens. Three years later, she released the EP Lying in the Sun, followed by the dreamy full-length The Avenues, which received excellent reviews. This caught the attention of T-Bone Burnett, who was producing the soundtrack for True Detective's second season. Burnett hired Lynn to collaborate with him and Rosanne Cash on songs for the series, a break that helped raise her profile. She capitalized on that attention in 2016 with Resistor, an album that bore a more overt rock influence than its predecessors.

In 2018, Lynn released a collection of collaborations cheekily called Plays Well with Others; Rodney Crowell, JD McPherson, and Shovels Rope were among her featured partners. Two years later, Lynn took the opposite tack with On My Own, an album she wrote, recorded, and produced almost entirely on her own. Also in 2020, she gave birth to a son fathered by Todd Lombardo, a longtime romantic and creative partner. Lynn explored the emotional aftermath of parenthood on Something More Than Love, a 2022 album that found her moving away from shadowy textures and embracing a soft, atmospheric vibe. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi