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Rachelle Garniez

Rachelle Garniez is a songwriter, singer, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Born and raised on New York City’s 1970s culturally diverse Upper West Side by an American classical pianist and a European professor of French existentialist literature, Rachelle was exposed to rich and multi-layered influences, from utopian collective free-schooling and Austrian Expressionism to roller disco and congueros in Central Park.

In 1982, at age 17, she spent a year making her way around Europe. She picked up a guitar, playing folk songs on the streets of Venice and Avignon, then on a beach in the south of Spain - adopted by the local Gypsy flamenco singing champion. Returning to New York, Rachelle eventually settled in the East Village. She was hijacked by an accordion, an instrument that served to connect her experiences with an infinitely expanding motherlode of multi-cultural music.

From her first adventures as a street musician and a fixture in the 80s New York boho scene, Rachelle went on to form the band The Fortunate Few, and has since released seven acclaimed albums under her own name. Rachelle’s songs have been performed and recorded by jazz artist Catherine Russell, pop singer Karen Elson, and Ingrid Lucia (The Flying Neutrinos). Rachelle has performed and collaborated with Jack White, Suzzy Roche, Thomas Dolby’s TED House Band, Sven Ratzke, Palmyra Delran, beloved bar band Mumbo Gumbo, roots-world ensemble Hazmat Modine, and sonic sorcerer Sxip Shirey. Together with Amanda Homi and other artists, she is a member of VickiKristinaBarcelona (aka VKB), remaking the Tom Waits catalog in three-part harmony and inventive instrumentation.