Christie Lenée

Finalists: Christie Lenée, Daniel Padim, Alan Shikoh

The level of fingerstyle instrumental playing in the world of acoustic keeps on rising, as our trio of very different players – who travelled thousands of miles to us – clearly demonstrated. Christie Lenée had landed just hours before, after coming offstage at a fingerstyle festival in Kansas. There was plenty of the advanced techniques Christie calls “slap and tap” but also an electrifying sense of melody as we followed the journey of her composition, Song For Michael Pukac. Next, Sao Paulo’s Daniel Padim didn’t let us down with his Milongerstyle. Fusing the Southern Brazilian milonga rhythm style with the fingerstyle he’s been developing for 15 years made for a hypnotic piece that used harmonics and wonderfully controlled slap technique. Classically trained jazzer Alan Shikoh then offered something very different, a beautiful, nuanced arrangement of Gordon Jenkins’ 1934 song PS I Love You that showcased incredible poise and technique. In the end, it was Christie’s performance that won her a EF341SC dreadnought from sponsors Takamine and other goodies, presented by the Japanese company’s master luthier Makoto Terasaki. You arrived this morning – where did you fly from to get here today? “Wichita, Kansas. It’s the weekend of the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship and this year was the first time I’ve been booked to play at the festival. We played six sets and then I jumped on a shuttle to the airport!” What are you future plans? “I’m definitely trying to expand. I’ve been trying to develop this sound of Michael Hedges meets Joni Mitchell and Dave Matthews and The Flecktones. The Flecktones comes when there’s a band there, doing instrumental arrangements with an ensemble, combined with the singer-songwriter and a little bit of jam band-meets-virtuoso slap/tap music. It’s the blend of all the things I love. I’m putting it all in a pie and hopefully making something sweet.”