Indie songstress draws from jazz, Baroque pop

I’m always genuinely amazed by people who can play multiple instruments. Me, I am competent on guitar and vocals. I learned clarinet and oboe growing up, two instruments I’ve largely forgotten how to play. And I know where a C is on a piano, so I can make sounds that aren’t totally horrible.

Then I look at someone like singer-songwriter Audrey Ryan, and I shake my head. In addition to having a lovely voice, the woman plays guitar, bass, keyboards, violin, accordion and glockenspiel. And to top it off, she plays them all really well, as evidenced on her excellent new album, “Dishes & Pills,” set to be officially released this weekend with two shows in Bar Harbor: Friday at the Lompoc, Saturday at McKay’s Public House.

Ryan, 28, grew up on Mount Desert Island with a church organist mother and a rock ‘n’ roll-loving father.

“I was always being dragged to church to sing in the choir with the old ladies,” said Ryan with a laugh. “I took violin lessons when I was 7, and my dad taught me guitar when I was 10. He really loved the Beatles. There was always music around.”

Ryan wrote a few songs in high school and went on to Columbia University in New York City, where she immersed herself in jazz, playing in an ensemble. She also honed her musical chops playing fiddle in a bluegrass band.

“Jazz gave me an approach to songwriting that was different from the way I think a lot of people approach it,” said Ryan. “I think people learn a couple chords and start singing songs. I really had the opportunity to develop my musicianship and learn all kinds of tunings and chords and stuff so I could actually write music.”

After college, Ryan moved to Somerville, Mass., and got involved in the Boston singer-songwriter scene, collaborating with her then-boyfriend, Stephen Brodsky, a member of the now-defunct hard-core band Cave-In. The songs that grew out of those first few years in Boston formed the basis of her first album, “Passing Thru,” released in 2004.

Since then, Ryan has toured the world, including a recent six-week tour of Europe, which resulted in a contract with UK label Folkwit, which is releasing “Dishes & Pills” overseas. She’s releasing the album on her own here in the U.S., though several indie labels have made overtures to sign her.

And as well they should. A lush, beautifully arranged slice of indie pop, “Dishes & Pills” is the work of a intelligent songwriter and composer with a clear vision of the music. There are elements of baroque ’60s pop such as The Zombies or The Beach Boys, but her clear musical contemporaries are ambitious, sensitive, smart songwriters such as Sufjan Stevens, John Vanderslice and Feist.

It’s all the more remarkable that most of “Dishes & Pills” was recorded on a four-track in Ryan’s Somerville apartment, and though initially she recorded the album with Brodsky, she finished it by herself.

“I didn’t have any interaction with anyone on five of the songs on the album. I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could do it all on my own,” said Ryan. “Somehow or another, it worked.”

Audrey Ryan will play at 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31, at the Lompoc Cafe, and again at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 1, at McKay’s Public House, both in Bar Harbor. “Dishes & Pills” will be available for purchase at the shows. For information, visit www.audreyryan.org. Emily Burnham can be reached at eburnham@bangordailynews.net.