Sharon Van Etten: 'I don't know a lot of women on the road that have kids'

In advance of her gigs in Cork and Dublin, the American star talks motherhood and the joys of touring again 
Sharon Van Etten: 'I don't know a lot of women on the road that have kids'

Sharon Van Etten  plays Cork Opera House and Vicar Street, Dublin.  

Life on the road was once second nature to Sharon Van Etten. The singer-songwriter left her home in New Jersey as a teenager, forging a career in music and embracing the peripatetic lifestyle that went with it. However, touring is different now that she is a parent to a five-year-old son.

“I know lots of parents on the road, but I don't know a lot of women on the road that have kids. And it's just a different feeling. Mothers feel way more guilt — I know dads feel it too, maybe they hide it more, but it's easier for them to just walk away,” she says. "Being a mother is now a huge part of my identity, in the context of the decisions that I'm making, where I live, what tours I choose to go on, what jobs I choose to take. And it’s still something I'm figuring out.”

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