Going Swimmingly: Laura Veirs

Map It:  Clarendon 

LAURA VEIRS IS taking a stroll, avoiding barking dogs, chatting on the phone. You can imagine the brainy indie singer-songwriter starring in her own movie, at the center of which is a montage, only semi parodic: She turns her face to the sun, steps neatly around the doggie, accepts a proffered ice cream cone and tucks the phone under her blond waves.

The Seattle-based Veirs comes by her good humor honestly. She is smart and literary, and motored by a solid melodic sense; there's nothing wispy or self-conscious about her lush, hooky and knowing songs.

Her connection to nature is another prominent aspect of her music. Viers' new album, "Saltbreakers" (Nonesuch), has more nautical motifs than the dining room at the Rusty Scupper, and like the sea itself, the album is a beautiful, compelling thing with a powerful undertow.

Veirs, who'll bring her band — formerly the indily named Tortured Souls, currently The Saltbreakers — to Iota on Friday, grew up in Colorado, an old hand at a young age at camping, hiking and getting out.

"I don't have a sentimental view of nature," she said. "I know nature can be very powerful as well as rewarding and fulfilling. I don't have a sentimental view of anything, really. … I love to talk about beauty, but I also love to talk about darkness and the beauty of the underground, things happening beneath the surface."

Time spent in a Minnesota punk band helped focus Veirs' relationship to music. Punk influences aren't explicit in her current work, but the idiosyncrasy is more the style of a DIYer than a crowd-pleaser. What she learned was "There's no support for artists in this culture; there's no funding. You're going to have to do it yourself and stick it out and that, I think, is why we have so many great artists."

Part of doing that was coming up with a less distracting band name. When asked whether the lineup had changed or things were looking up, Veirs laughed. "We did not change the lineup. I got tired of people asking, 'Who's the most tortured?' ... I came up with 'Saltbreakers' for the album title and we ended up using that for the band. It's a uniting thing. We're becoming more united, I think." Then she spins on her heel, you imagine, and plucks a blossom from a branch.

» Iota Club & Cafe, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; with Lake, Fri., 9:30 p.m., $12; 703-522-8340. (Clarendon)

Photos courtesy Sacks & Co.