Originally Published on April 10th, 2026
Virginia-based recording artist, Lavender Fire, has been on a tear lately. In the last two years, she has 3 EPs, her debut LP, and followed it with a single from her newer sessions. Fifteen Minutes of Fame have had the utmost privilege of watching this new artist development with reviews of the Roommates EP, She’s My Ocean EP, From Shadows to Light LP, and her latest single, East. It only seems appropriate that the incredibly talented artist be the first one we feature for a review of a Live album!
Lavender Fire, aka Cecilee, is a particularly unique artist. Musically, she stylistically plays similar to mainstream artist, Tori Amos; maybe leaning a bit more to the classical/pop genres of music. Instrumentally, she accompanies herself with just a piano, with the occasional programmed percussion. Vocally, she offers a folkish-storyteller’s styled delivery with heavy classical influence (which makes sense, considering she studied classical voice).
What makes her music unique and inspiring are the stories she chooses to tell. A proud member of the LGBTQ community, Lavender Fire often references her experience of discovering her sexual identity. That alone isn’t terribly unique; she’s hardly the first person to sing about her sexuality. What is special about her story is the time in which she came to grips with her identity. Once married to a man, she began to identify issues in her marriage that she couldn’t explain. This was the start of a path that led to her meeting her true love, and discovering who she really was. This discovery has inspired her stage name and the music she’s produced.
Live from the VB Garden
Live from the VB Garden released on March 30th. At 18 songs, it runs a little over 30 minutes. Some of the tracks are her engaging with the audience and telling short stories to introduce her next song. The Live performance is a solo performance by Lavender Fire who accompanies herself on piano. This collection of work, along with all other bodies of work released by Lavender Fire, are for sale at bandcamp, as well as her website.
Lavender Fire opens her set with East, her most recent release. Her performance is right in line with the studio recording. She has a strong concert voice and she does a fantastic job engaging with the audience. I really enjoy the storytelling between the songs that explain the inspiration for the music. She is also well received from the audience as interactions can be heard at the end of her performances, as well as during some of the segments of storytelling.
One of Lavender Fire’s strongest songs is Arsonist, which is her second performed song. This song really chronicles her moment of discovering her true identity. She explains it as a moment where she decided she had to “burn it all to the ground in order to rise from the ashes.” I just think it is a beautiful analogy when faced with coming to terms with her identity.
As the performance continues, Lavender Fire performs many of her best songs like Roommates, From Shadows to Light, and the song Lavender Fire. I love the arrangement of the set. The music flowed very well together and, maybe more importantly, the stories flowed incredibly well together. Like the transition from Arsonist to The Hardest Part.
“So, this one is gonna go after the Arsonist. This is about ‘Ok, I burned it all down’ and I’m like ‘Oh shit. I could have done that a little bit better’” ~ Lavender Fire
Lavender Fire’s Live from the VB Garden is a wonderful performance showcasing the very best and brightest moments spanning from the last two years of her recording career. She is engaging, sincere, and musically gifted. This is a great chance to hear these songs in their rawest form; no do-overs, no production choices. From start to finish, she simply takes us through this incredible story of her life. The story of how Cecilee torched everything she thought she was supposed to be and, in doing so, became Lavender Fire.
Go press play.
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