Neo-folk singer, songwriter and guitarist Mariee Siou is optimistic that local audiences are ready to accompany her on an emotional musical journey.

Born and raised in California, Siou currently resides in Portland, Oregon, but she’s played in Port Townsend enough to appreciate how receptive its audiences have been to her work.

Regardless of where she plays, Siou receives feedback from attendees of her performances who confess to feeling deeply moved by her songs.

“Sometimes folks come to me after a concert, some of them crying, others just wanting to talk,” Siou said. “I think it’s because my music is pretty vulnerable and raw in turn. I don’t hold back, and it can be emotionally intense. At the same time, the sound of the music is soft.”

One of Siou’s aims with her music is to help herself and others work through grief.

“I use my music as a vessel and a medicine for grief,” Siou said. “Rather than trying to push grief away, we need to move through it to deal with it.”

Siou also hopes to help each individual who hears her music “feel more connected to their place in time,” which is one reason why she enjoys performing for ceremonial gatherings.

“It helps me remember why I’m here, and it’s meant to remind others that they’re truly meant to be here,” Siou said. “We always need music to be able to speak to our times, to harness those times and bring them before a mirror.”

Siou noted that modern times include no shortage of sources of grief and loss, from “mass extinctions” and social and economic forces to more personal losses, such as her own loss of ties to her unique heritage of Native American and Eastern European cultures.

“Due to my rapid cultural assimilation, there’s an empty space where my ties to those cultures should be, which is one reason why I like ritual in my performances,” Siou said. “For all of us, the magnitude of loss we experience is really extensive, and it doesn’t serve any of us not to acknowledge that fact.”

Since her 2007 debut, “Faces in the Rocks,” Siou has sought to blend lyrical mysticism with instrumental artistry and soothing vocals to provide both vision and healing through her music.

From a childhood of attending bluegrass festivals and listening to her father’s bluegrass band, Siou has embraced her chosen role among a tradition of healer-singers, and attempts to reconnect her severed ties to her Polish, Hungarian and Native American heritage.

Siou has toured Europe and the United States, opening for Mazzy Star, Buffy St. Marie, Bert Jansch, Brightblack Morning Light, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Joanna Newsom, and in 2021, she played Le Guess Who? in the Netherlands.

On Saturday, Feb. 8, Siou will play at the Palindrome, at Eaglemount Wine and Cider in Port Townsend, following the opening act Wolfchild, a duo from Seattle who play cinematic folk rock.