Christie Lenée, one of Guitar World’s ‘Best Acoustic’ players, to play Palindrome

By Kirk Boxleitner
Posted 9/4/24

Acoustic guitarist Christie Lenée will be performing at the Palindrome on Thursday, Sept. 12.

Lenée won first place at the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in 2017, …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Christie Lenée, one of Guitar World’s ‘Best Acoustic’ players, to play Palindrome

Posted

Acoustic guitarist Christie Lenée will be performing at the Palindrome on Thursday, Sept. 12.

Lenée won first place at the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in 2017, and she’s performed on stage alongside Tim Reynolds of the Dave Matthews Band, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge and Christopher Cross.

Lenée was also recently named among the “Best Acoustic Guitarists in the World Right Now” by Guitar World Magazine, and in 2022, she released her sixth and latest album, “Coming Alive.”

While Lenée can’t recall whether she’s performed in Port Townsend before, she knows this is her first concert with Rainshadow Recording, after they were recommended to her by folks she’d met while playing “Live at Andre’s” in Spokane, on the east side of Washington state.

“I was asking for recommendations of other cool places I could play,” Lenée said. “I love venues that allow you to deliver a good sound.”

Lenée achieves her distinctive sound through a variety of instruments and other tools beyond just acoustic guitar-playing, from working the guitar neck with both hands to create a bassline, to employing an octave pedal, a vocal harmonizer and a foot tambourine to essentially serve as her own backing band and accompaniment.

“Nothing is pre-recorded,” Lenée said. “There’s no backing tracks. I’m doing it all by myself, all at once. A friend who saw me play at Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta, Georgia, told me I was a one-woman ensemble.”

According to Lenée, her eclectic talents serve as an outlet for her need to express her emotions, even when those emotions can’t be articulated through lyrics.

“I want to connect to other people through my music, which expresses emotions that just about all of us have felt,” Lenée said. “It’s nice that music gives me a place to put those emotions, and that performing allows me and my audiences to feel the same emotions at the same time.”

Lenée agreed that much of her music can be uplifting, but she clarified that it doesn’t exist solely to be upbeat.

“At my concerts, I want to create a frequency, and a space, for all sorts of feelings, where people can feel safe expressing those emotions,” Lenée said. “I’ve gotten better at descriptions, but instrumentals still give me ways of expressing emotions that I can’t always find words for. Heart-driven music is the language of emotion, which is what makes it so special to share it.”

Matt Miner confirmed that Rainshadow Recording is returning to the Palindrome for the month of September.

“We occasionally move shows with smaller audience potential from the Palindrome to the Rainshadow Recording Studio, for a more intimate feel,” Miner said. “Also, if a performer is interested in doing a live recording in front of an audience, we’re set up to do that easily and economically in the studio.”

Lenée’s concert will kick off at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 at the Palindrome.

Lenée invited prospective attendees of her Sept. 12 concert to check out her music online, to see if it might suit them, before buying tickets, which run for $20 online, in advance, through ticketstorm.com, or $25 cash or check at the doors, which open at 7 p.m.