Sharon Van Etten: "All I Can"

Juke Box Hero brings us his report on a gorgeous stripped-down version of indie singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten.

On a recent family road trip, I was in charge of choosing music for the interior of the car during periods when I wasn’t driving. Or during the fuzzy patches between local NPR stations. My brother was plugged into laptop headphones delivering the soundtrack of Dragon Warrior Monsters, but my mother would listen as I played a non-confrontational assortment from my iPod.

When she’d ask, I found myself describing most of what came on as "indie-this" or "indie-that" (I am a cool dude). She had a hard time understanding what the "indie" prefix meant, and maybe that’s because I started the explanation with, "It means you don’t generally hear it on the radio." Fair enough, right?

Mom, meet Sharon Van Etten, a bona fide "indie" singer-songwriter based in Brooklyn. The 31-year-old New Jersey native has put out three records on small, independent labels – the most recent is February 2012’s Tramp on Jagjaguwar – and her airy, sullen, and introspective folk-rock is a fine specimen from the indie spectrum. The instrumentation she uses is also characteristically sparse, keeping the impact of each musician more audible and relevant than some superfluously orchestrated cut from One Direction or Nicki Minaj.

For this performance of the tragic love ballad "All I Can," she’s stripped down more than normal, to just guitar and two voices; she’s more vulnerable, more exposed, more raw, more awesome. It’s fitting for such soul-baring poetry ("I want my scars to help, to heal"). Van Etten’s dark, raspy tone delivers the delicate balance of depression and strength truthfully, like she’s literally singing through the pain.

Expect a larger production and band membership in her showcase at Lolla. Expect it to be loud, and expect it to be emotional. She’s a master of the "aggressive shoe-gazer" guitar stance, as well as the badass "I’m just going to take a peek at the world from time to time from behind my low-hanging, sweaty black bangs" affected rocker appearance. And yet she still maintains this good-girl sweetness. That’s how she draws you in, before she breaks your heart, and that of everyone else in earshot. The radio may not be her medium, but believe me, the Lolla stage is another story.