BAEBLE CONCERTS: Anna Ternheim at The Bowery Ballroom

The musical equivalent of pealing the accentuated flesh away from the fundamental bone that lay beneath, this devastatingly simple performance from Swedish singer/songwriter Anna Ternheim reveals the true art behind going it alone. These are not the tightly engineered tracks of excellent new disc Halfway to Fivepoints (Decca). This is a performance of a much more poignant nature. Acoustic guitar, piano, and voice are all Anna needs to craft haunting, human stories that unfold at a slow and elegant pace. Her approach might be humble. But the sentiment and emotion behind the everyday characters that inhabit her songs are not. - David Pitz