Growing Up With Open Ears: Thao Nguyen

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AS AN ONLY CHILD growing up in Falls Church, Thao Nguyen spent a lot of her childhood by herself. "I first started playing because I was lonely," she says. "There was just a guitar sitting around, and I thought I would give it a shot."

Now, Nguyen has one well-received album, "Like the Linen," under her belt and is set to release her second, "We Brave Bee Stings and All," on the venerable indie-rock label Kill Rock Stars.

The label's founder and onetime president, Slim Moon, is currently Nguyen's manager, and their professional relationship grew from a blind e-mail she sent asking to open for Portland-based space-folk singer Laura Veirs, who Moon also manages.

"I had no idea who he was, and I barely knew what Kill Rock Stars was," Nguyen admits. Impressed with her songwriting, Moon wrote her back and even included a track of hers on the label compilation "The Sound the Hare Heard" in 2006.

During the package tour for that release, the group of friends she'd invited to play with her gelled into a versatile backing band, called the Get Down Stay Down. The result of their collaboration, "Bee Stings" is an accomplished and eclectic collection of exuberant pop songs that draw from rock, folk, country and even Dixieland jazz influences.

"A lot of it is processing my childhood, things that I witnessed in my family," she says, describing the album as "grossly autobiographical."

With "Bee Stings" hitting stores, Nguyen is a little nervous. "A few weeks ago, I had a little panic attack," she says. But most of all, she's excited to get the album out there. "We want to do this for as long as we can, so it's cool to get started."

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

Written by Express contributor Stephen M. Deusner

Photo Courtesy Kill Rock Stars