Stephanie Lee Has A Need to Tell A Secret

By Melody Elwell
Taos News

Two years ago, singer/songwriter Stephanie Lee took her income tax refund check and bought something she had really wanted for more than 20 years.

“Practical woman that I am, I bought a piano. Here I was, riding around in a real single mother-mobile with a door that closed with a bungie cord and a heater that wouldn’t work in the winter and wouldn’t shut in the summer. I could have bought a car, but I bought the piano instead,” Lee said.

Before, Lee used pianos in churches and was constantly interrupted by things like choir practice.

“Its great having my own piano, I can come home from work and practice all I want. In fact, I play it all the time,” she said.

Lee, 33 years old and single mother of three, said she became seriously interested in music when she was 14 years old.

“I lived for a while in a school in New Hampshire that had a big room with a piano. It was a beautiful piano. I was only there for six months, but it gave me a taste of having solitude and being able to create music in that solitude,” she said.

Lee is self-taught. She doesn’t even read music. “I had one lesson from an old man who said, “Forget it! Give it up. You’ll never be a musician,” she said.

Lee said she has considered herself a songwriter more than a performer. “That allowed me to be in the closet with my music. Now, I’m getting over my stage fright, and I love performing,” she said.

Lee’s music is heartfelt. She says her songs are about what she feels concerning the experience of living, “It’s my need to tell a secret – to tell somebody something. They are about relationships, politics. About living in an insane world. They are about being human in a world that doesn’t seem to value that very much. They are about love, too.”

Because of the instrumentation – piano and a woman’s voice – Lee’s songs might remind you of other songwriters like Laura Nyro and Joni Mitchell.

Her songs are pensive yet joyful, sprinkled with clever turns of phrases and quirky rhythm changes. Her vocal style is also reminiscent of slide guitarist and bluesy singer/songwriter Ellen Macillwain.

Lee also says some of her early musical influences are Maurice Ravel and an obscure group called The Flock. The group’s music centered around a jazz violinist that had been classically trained. “It was actually their arrangements that grabbed me. They were so interesting,” Lee said. “But everything influenced me. I could never say that one style of music influenced me.”

Lee said that members of her family also left musical impressions on her. “My mother loved music. She listened to recordings all the time. My grandfather played Russian folk tunes on his violin for me. The tunes were very “Old World.”

Musician In Profile
Who: Stephanie Lee
What: Singer/Songwriter
When: June 23
Where: Dori’s Bakery

Lee moved West in July of 1977, landing in Santa Fe and living in a tent on a building site where her ex-husband was employed. She says she didn’t care for Santa Fee much and just three months later moved into a little house in Pilar.

Lee says that Taos was an inspiration for her music. One of her songs, “Waiting for Snow to Fall,” was written when she was living just off Guadalupe Plaza. In the music and lyrics, you can almost hear the bells of the church.

Lee has recorded four songs. She said she plans to record a cassette album at Moondance at the end of the month.

Lee can be heard June 23 at Dori’s Bakery in the evening, and in August she plans to perform in the Stables Courtyard during the Taos Association’s music showcase series. She also has two dates in July at the Taos Inn.