If there is one word that encapsulates Sharon Van Etten’s music, it is, undoubtedly, intimate. The Brooklyn-based songstress sings folk music for lovers—lovers of heartache, of life, of raw human emotion—laying graceful vocals like lace over crooning, acoustic guitar that feels straight out of the bedroom. Her lyrics seem to come from the depths of midnight thought, speaking to us as if in moonlit conversation over life’s great truths. Yet she achieves this intimacy not through grandiose statements, but in tiny details: a toe-touch, a bloody knee…the little moments we’ve all known that take on meaning far greater than they may at first seem to possess.

Raised in New Jersey, Van Etten began writing music as a girl, but it was only after returning to her childhood home that she started recording songs. After six years in Tennessee and five in a decidedly unhealthy relationship, she began the bedroom demos that would ultimately become Because I Was In Love, the debut LP that’s garnered her acclaim from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, NPR, the UK Times, Brooklyn Vegan, The Boston Globe, as well The Onion's AV Club, and many more. But it’s the reaction of listeners who’ve discovered her that is most telling. At once both heartbreaking and inspiring, Sharon Van Etten’s music leaves ears yearning for more life; it’s difficult not to feel it inhabit you.

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