Uwade isn’t willing to trade in the classics for the concert hall. On one hand, she studied at Columbia University and got her master’s from Oxford. On the other hand, she’s opened for bands like The Strokes and Fleet Foxes.

Thankfully, the North Carolina singer-songwriter doesn’t have to decide just yet, or maybe ever. Both language and music fall into harmony on her debut album, Florilegium.

The phrase roughly translates to “an anthology of flowers” in Latin. True to its title, the album is a collection of intimate snapshots. On songs like “Clearer Through You,” she sings about grief.

“Losing my father and not knowing who I was at the time because this person that I looked to was no longer there,” she says. “So everything was clearer through my dad.”

In this session, Uwade talks about what ties this collection together; how family trips to Nigeria influenced her; and taking her mother’s feedback seriously.

“When I was writing my sad, indie-girl folk songs, she was, like, ‘Uwa, can you please write a hot song? Something with a little salt and pepper?’,” she says.

Plus, Uwade performs live in the studio.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.