Growing up in Queens, New York, singer-songwriter Neah Lee was shaped by a rich mosaic of experiences, much of which influences her music today. Being born to parents who were both musical and spiritual, Lee had an early thirst for music, music that would move the soul.  As early as the age of two, you would find her standing on table tops imitating her father’s conducting, swinging her arms to the music only heard in her head. Little did she know, that the music Lee was hearing in her head would eventually emerge into her own songs. While in college, one significant trip to Ethiopia opened her eyes and released the floodgates of Lee’s songwriting as she struggled with the images and emotions she had felt. This soul searching and wrestling birthed songs that Lee started performing in coffee houses and open mikes around New York and New Jersey. Soon after, through a series of divine appointments, she met with independent singer-songwriter and producer Koo Chung, who immediately asked her to open for his CD release concert after hearing her perform. Lee was then invited to join Koo’s music label, BrokenforGood Records, where she went on two national tours, opening for musicians such as David Barnes and Monk & Neagle.

Lee has recorded and released two albums, ((In)significance (6/5/03) and Without Wax (1/25/05). When her label disbanded, Lee took a hiatus from recording and touring to rediscover her musical direction and to actively pursue her passion to promote action for causes in Africa, South America, and North Korea through benefit concerts and speaking engagements. Lee has now returned from her break with her most vulnerable release yet, an EP where she tried her hat at playing multiple roles of producer, composer, and musician.

Lee has performed locally in NYC’s music circuit (CBGB’s, The Bitter End, The Lion’s Den, The Cutting Room, Kavehaz to name a few) as well as colleges, universities, churches, and cafes on both coasts. In live performances she plays a variety of instruments (but primarily acoustic guitar), while singing her own harmony vocals and creating textures by recording and playing back harmony lines and instrumentations in real time (looping). The resulting layered nature of her performances carries the listener through the tensions between art and life, the intimate and grand, and the sacred and profane.

As one fan commented, “The listener may never exchange a single word with Neah. But it’s like a deep conversation carries on as her songs awakens you to your questions and fears about life, and to the forgotten sound of your buried hopes and dreams.”