ACL Live Review: Raven Lenae

Ethereal is a cliche, but 19-year-old neo-soulstress Ravyn Lenae Washington is Chicago’s braided pixie goddess.

Twisting her octaves in and out of opener “Crush” with the slippery revelry of easy talent, she imbues her songs with an impromptu quality. They sound as if having been written as she’s singing. Simply sitting at a piano, the singer voiced her dreams and pain – and yours as well.

In the flesh, she’s tiny beyond belief. Her smile, however, beamed like that of a pageant queen as she twerked for Snapchatters to a mixed crowd on Friday at the Tito’s stage, teeming with stony-faced yuppies and stoned queens. The pastor’s granddaughter reached back to her second EP, Midnight Moonlight, for “I’m On My Own.”

Her early material comes off a bit awkward when the bridges never seems to arrive anywhere, glossed over by too much vocalization, but the third song in her 1pm set, “Computer Luv,” anchored ACL with a brassy hook. “4 Leaf Clover” funked a tribute to getting friend zoned, and the following “Night Song” had the audience sprung with go-girl feminism.

Often, R&B/soul is best in an intimate situation. Yet Ravyn Lenae is just so damn charming it makes up for rookie mistakes like over-vocalizing or losing the hook. “Sticky,” off 2018’s Crush, likely proved the hit bringing most new fans to her stage.

She closed with a jam she termed “barbecue house music.”