As solo performers go, she’s in a lofty place

“A woman came right up to me on stage and said, ‘I want to sing “Sweet Home Alabama’’ - you guys play and I’ll sing,’ ’’ Ryan remembers with incredulity. Because this is a family newspaper, let’s just say Ryan suggested the aspiring singer depart the stage immediately and leave it at that.

“This happens all of the time,’’ she says. “If you’re a performer and this hasn’t happened to you, you probably haven’t played enough.’’ In Ryan’s case, episodes like those are thankfully few and far between. But she understands that they do come with the territory of being an artist who isn’t interested in kowtowing to pop trends or, worse, cover-song requests. Every so often, someone just doesn’t get it.

Yet how anyone could mistake Ryan’s eccentric one-woman-band approach - she typically plays various combinations of electric guitar, keyboard, accordion, banjo, and drums during her shows - with a performer who plies crowds with Lynyrd Skynyrd covers is a stretch indeed.

“If you’re not trying to replicate something or being too derivative, you end up maybe being a little isolated [from a mass audience],’’ says Ryan one recent afternoon, surrounded by amplifiers and instruments in her sprawling Union Square rehearsal and recording space. “I’m not really concerned with what’s popular and what sells. I don’t want to be the next Norah Jones. I just want to play what I’m playing and be very true to it, and creative with it.’’

Ryan’s third and latest full-length album, “I Know, I Know,’’ whose release she’ll celebrate with a show Oct. 17 at the Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church, is an intriguing amalgam of homemade indie-folk swathed in ethereal chamber pop textures. To capture the flavor and spirit of her solo performances, Ryan sang and played all of the instruments, recording as many as possible simultaneously live to four-track, and then layering and looping sounds for additional atmosphere.

With Ryan’s boyfriend and coproducer, Cave In singer-guitarist Stephen Brodsky, engineering and Ryan’s voice - intimate one moment and free-floating celestial the next - front and center, “I Know, I Know’’ is sure to stand among her best works.

“There was this point where I was playing in other people’s bands and I thought, this is too much work, having to get people together and dealing with everyone’s personalities,’’ Ryan, 28, says of going solo. “I personally think that being in a band is as hard as being in any other relationship. I find it very difficult.’’

She’s done pretty well on her own. Since moving from Maine and breaking into the Boston music scene with her debut solo album, “Passing Thru,’’ in 2004 (her second album, “Dishes & Pills,’’ came out in ’07), Ryan’s opened high profile shows for Josh Ritter, Ra Ra Riot, and They Might Be Giants, among others. She’s even toured internationally and is now signed to the UK-based label Folkwit Records, which is releasing “I Know, I Know’’ in Europe. Next week she’s slated to compete as a finalist in a “River Rising Star’’ competition showcasing homegrown talent, sponsored by WXRV-FM The River.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s rehearsal space, which sits on the second floor of a converted paper warehouse, is ground zero for an ongoing music series of loft shows Ryan hosts just about every month. The informal concerts, which usually feature an array of local and touring bands, is even the subject of a new documentary film titled “Loft Show Upstairs’’ by director Mike Boudo. (Ryan’s Oct. 17 show will include a screening of the film.)

“The first loft show I went to was such an amazing, wholesome vibe,’’ says Boudo, who is a television news producer by day. Boudo says he quickly became enthralled with the idea of documenting the experience. “The audience is there for one purpose, and it’s to see great music. Audrey has really cultivated this neat little scene, and she works so hard at it.’’

“I certainly have gotten overwhelmed doing all of this myself,’’ Ryan says. “But I like practicing alone and being alone a lot. I feel very liberated, because now, when I get asked to do a show, I don’t have to call anyone. It’s a great feeling.’’

CELTIC COLUMBUS: A hearty sample of the area’s best young Celtic musicians will be on hand this weekend for a pair of shows sponsored by the Boston Celtic Music Fest. Tonight the “chambergrass’’ ensemble Folk Arts Quartet performs at the third “BCMFest Goes West(ford)’’ concert at the Westford Museum (go to www.westford.com/museum for more info). The evening also features Tri, a pipes-fiddle-guitar trio playing Scottish and Cape Breton music; and 2009 New England Scottish fiddle champion Katie McNally. Monday brings BCMFest’s “Celtic Music Monday’’ to Club Passim for a two-part show, featuring singer Bridget Fitzgerald and the fiddle-flute-guitar-voice duo of Sean Connor and Liam Hart (yes, they do all of those things). Go to www.clubpassim.org for details.