by Jake McKenzie
photo by Ryan Pfluger
Red Rose is a coffee house and record shop that also has live music. It’s located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where Sharon Van Etten went to college. Though she dropped out of college after only a year, she remained in Murfreesboro for four more to work at the Red Rose and listen intently to the troubadour lyrics and dulcet tones of the rotating coffee shop virtuosos. At the time Van Etten was too afraid to perform herself, but she was secretly writing songs and finding her artistic voice in solitude. After a personal crisis sent her back to her home state of New Jersey, Sharon finally laid down some tracks to CD-R. On her latest album, Remind Me Tomorrow, this chill folk artist sets her guitar aside in favor of synths and textures. The shift in sound was met with critical acclaim and marks an exciting new phase in her career.
