Sharon Van Etten Finds Her Way Home
The New York Times
For her seventh album, the indie singer-songwriter comes to New Jersey to play on her old turf and process the past.
Backstage at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J., on a bitterly cold February night, the singer and songwriter Sharon Van Etten drank tea and hung out with family members.
At her show earlier that evening — her first appearance at the legendary venue and her third show on tour in support of her seventh album, “Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory” — she joked that the gig was booked in response to demand by her own family, and likely she was related in some way to approximately 10 percent of the audience.
“You guys sound great!” shouted an older man in a blue National and War on Drugs T-shirt.
“Awww thanks,” Ms. Van Etten said, before turning to the crowd and announcing, “that wasn’t even my dad!”
Her dad, Steve Van Etten, was there, in fact, hanging out afterward in the green room with her mom, Janice Van Etten, and older sister, Jessica Van Etten, an elementary school teacher in Monmouth County, N.J., along with other relatives and friends.
Ms. Van Etten is most associated with the Brooklyn music scene of the 2010s. Her third album, 2012’s “Tramp,” was produced by the National’s Aaron Dessner, released on the indie label Jagjaguwar and featured guest spots by Beirut’s Zach Condon and the Walkmen’s Matt Barrick, among others. It established Ms. Van Etten as a distinct new voice, an artist with a unique ability to make rage and self-doubt sound pretty.
