It’s a rarity when a musical artist comes along with the right youthfulness, look, and artistry to go to the industry’s upper echelon — especially both commercially and critically.
Jupiter-based singer, guitarist and songwriter Sierra Lane (www.sierralanemusic.com) checks all the boxes. She performs at the free Bag A Donuts Festival on July 22 with six other artists and bands at Guanabanas in Jupiter.
Already a veteran performer despite only being in her early 20s, Lane’s long blond hair, lean build and Twiggy-like visage resemble current artists on albums covers, in music videos, and on the multiple popular vocal competition programs on TV.
That’s the commercial aspect, the flip side of which is Lane’s beyond-her-years songwriting, stage presence and musicianship.
Primarily a guitarist, her finger-picking style sets her apart, as does the fact that she also plays keyboards, bass, and ukulele. Her alto voice is unique and attention-grabbing, whether she’s playing solo, duo, full band or anywhere in between. And her songwriting is likewise just the right combination of 21st century and old school — combining indie pop, reggae, jazz, R&B, and alternative rock influences. It’s heady territory for a self-taught artist who learned to play guitar by watching Internet videos.
“The thought of doing anything that isn’t creative doesn’t feel like me,” Lane says, “and hasn’t even been considered as an option. I chose a creative career because music was really the only thing I felt a true connection to, so I’ve taken the time to work on my sound.”
While achieving that aspect of her musical persona privately, Lane also enhanced her stage presence through studies, and learning and performing cover tunes, at the School of Rock in nearby North Palm Beach.
During a spring appearance at Mathews Brewing Company in Lake Worth Beach, the results were apparent as it all came together. Playing in a duo with her longtime full-band drummer Cory Ricardy, Lane was responsible for not only half of the rhythmic chores, but also all of the melodic and harmonic ones. Which she handled with aplomb, her vocals soaring amid Ricardy’s framework and her own finger-picked electric guitar phrasing.
Lane even recorded loops of her own rhythm guitar patterns on the fly, using them to solo over on everything from singer Otis Redding’s time-honored R&B chestnut “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” to her own singles, the 6/8-timed pop/reggae vehicle “Deep Dive” and the autobiographical “Someone Else,” recorded with full-band mates Ricardy, bassist Giz Forte, and saxophonist Patrick Montanari.
“Breakups make for great songwriting,” she says, making lemonade out of romantic lemons and hinting at another of her recent, popular, reggae-tinged singles, “Lemonade.” Live videos of many of Lane’s performances are available on her website and on YouTube.
Reggae elements have increasingly crept into Lane’s songwriting during her ascent, the result of the island music form’s virtual omnipresence in South Florida.
“Once I got into reggae,” she says, “I realized it was everywhere.”
For the recent high school graduate from Jupiter Christian, that ascent has Lane in what’s essentially her third year of college within the regional nightclub and restaurant scenes, and as a burgeoning out-of-town draw. It’s a transition she’s gradually become used to.
Last New Year’s Eve, Lane’s band performed in Charleston, S.C., with the electronic duo Little Stranger (a featured guest on “Lemonade”). In March, there were both the Okeechobee Music and Art Fest and the Reggae Rise Up Florida Festival in St. Petersburg. In April, she performed at the Florida Groves Festival in Orlando; last month, it was Weekend at Wolfie’s — a three-day, all-ages camping festival at Fort Royale Farm in Bedford, Pa.
And as the South Florida summer simmers, Lane heats up the stage at Guanabanas in Jupiter with several other acts likewise straddling various genres and subgenres including pop, rock, reggae, and R&B — and with no cover charge.
“It’s always free at Guanabanas,” says Matt Cahur, the venue’s music and entertainment manager.
Perhaps at this rate, somewhere, the artist formerly known as Sierra Fitzhugh will eventually have a street named after her in the process.
If You Go
See Sierra Lane at the Bag A Donuts Festival with the Joey Calderaio Band, Cloud 9 Vibes, Roots Shakedown, iChroniq, The Sub Herbs, and Kylie Coyle at Guanabanas, 960 N. A1A, Jupiter
When: 1-11 p.m. July 22. Admission is free for all ages unti 9 p.m.; 21 and over after
Info: 561-747-8878; guanabanas.com