Lennon Stella
The Blue Room; Nashville, TN
October 24, 2026
Review by Philip Obenschain. Photos by Kelsea Whiting.
Like, I imagine, many people, my first exposure to singer-songwriter and actress Lennon Stella (and her younger sister and childhood musical partner Maisy) was through the television show Nashville, in which she and Maisy starred and occasionally performed from 2012-2018, while Lennon was a teen. That show premiered not long after I moved to town, and I made some great friends in the cast and crew it brought to Music City, so, melodramatic and soapy as it was, I tend to remember it fondly. I also remember seeing some of the cover songs the Stella sisters would post back then, outside of the show, and always being blown away by their talent- especially at such a young age. I wasn’t really keeping an eye on their careers otherwise, though, so when Lennon began releasing music on her own, right as the show was ending in 2018, her first EP, Love, Me, passed me by.
It was 2020 debut full-length, Three. Two. One., however, which most definitely first captured my attention- a really exceptional, surprisingly poppy, and confident artistic reintroduction, released not long before her 21st birthday, and establishing a sound that was a far cry from the country tunes of Nashville, or the eclectic covers and folk pop of Lennon & Maisy (I won’t call it “shockingly great,” because it’s no real shock to see an artist I already knew to be an extremely talented child performer, seamlessly transition into more mature, young adult pop). That album, like many released in 2020, will forever stay linked to the pandemic in my mind, providing blissful, anthemic, and confessional pop escapism at a time when the general atmosphere of the world was bleak. And, six years later, it still totally holds up, having dropped just before a really impressive new wave of young women in pop emerged to dominate the musical mainstream throughout the 2020s.
I hadn’t really been keeping a close eye on Lennon’s career since, but every once in a while, I’ll pop that record on and wonder when we might hear a follow-up. She played some shows in support once the world reopened, appeared at a fest here and there (and, of course, her sister has transitioned into film acting, appearing in recent features like My Old Ass and The End of Oak Street), but otherwise hasn’t been on the musical radar much in recent years. So, when she finally announced a long-awaited sophomore LP, Sleeping Lion, back in the summer, I was elated and curious to hear what was next, and even more excited when Stella announced a series of intimate shows in support, beginning over the weekend at The Blue Room in Nashville, marking her first headlining show in years.
Aside from maybe a couple of Nashville cast performances with her sister, I’d never seen Lennon live before (definitely not since she’s been making solo music), so getting a chance to at a small, stripped-down return to stage and new album introduction- especially in a venue as special as The Blue Room- was a really magical way to experience her in concert for the first time. Sleeping Lion was released just one day prior, so when this show was announced a month ago, I really didn’t even know what the vibe would be. In preparation, I gave the new record a few spins, though, and was a bit surprised to discover that it’s quite an artistic shift.
Produced by indie and folk rocker Andy Shauf (who, like the Stellas, hails from Canada), Lennon’s latest largely sheds the pop influence and layered, synthy and electronic production of her debut to instead embrace a more intimate, cozy, and earnest folk sound. While listening to her two albums in sequence feels like quite a pivot, I wouldn’t exactly call this a Lover to folklore kind of artistic reinvention, simply because these LPs exist six years apart. Six years of life experience, six years of young adulthood (Lennon is now 27), six years of musical and artistic soul-searching and continued outside influence. The fact that Sleeping Lion is so different feels quite refreshing, because it means that Stella allowed her songwriting to evolve organically, instead of boxing herself into the template and expectations of her past work.
Navigating breakups, difficult partners, love and longing; reckoning with her parents’ divorce, self-confidence, isolation, and social anxiety, Stella’s sophomore record truly feels like an artist having come into her own, and one made purposely removed from any preconceived notions of what it should be. I loved her pop stuff too, but this album sounds like Lennon Stella at her most sincere, and these songs are her best ever. And though I barely had time to really sit with it before the show, I was nonetheless floored to hear these new songs played in such an intimate, raw format.
This show (and other dates in New York, Toronto, and LA) sold out near-instantly, and with no opener listed, I arrived early, met by a packed room of excited fans. I could tell by the two chairs on stage that this was going to be the stripped-down affair I expected, and, right on time and with no supporting act, Lennon emerged, along with accompanist Isabel Shaye, who would play guitar and clarinet. This reminded me a lot of a small, acoustic Gracie Abrams and Aaron Dessner show I saw at Riverside Revival several years ago, except in this case, the whole set was brand new material. Met with enthusiastic cheers, Lennon launched into album opener “Comedy Show,” setting the tone for the soft, captivating, introspective performance to follow, as she worked her way through every single song from Sleeping Lion in track order.
From the sparse, confessional “Comedy Show” to the melancholy folk of “Beginner’s Mind,” to hearing the filled-out folk of “Porcelain” deconstructed to just guitar and clarinet, to the beautifully hypnotic melodies of “Unforgivable Things,” Stella immediately reminded us of just how immensely talented a vocalist and guitarist she is, and how gifted a songwriter. Showcasing songs at their most intimate and quiet and acoustic really gives a glimpse into the strength of their foundation, and between how good these new songs are and how adept Lennon is at performing them, this whole experience was nothing short of breathtaking.
Though she spent most of the show standing and playing guitar (frequently swapping out guitars thanks to a variety of tunings, which she joked about not really thinking through for a live performance), Lennon sat down for the finger-pick-heavy, emotionally charged “I Still Want You,” as well as the singalong-worthy “Ta Da” (while there wasn’t a ton of singing along, given that these songs are brand new, a commendable amount of the crowd had learned the words, and at one point the singer remarked something like “I wasn’t really expecting you to know the words yet”). One of the most powerful, personal, and vocally impressive songs on the album, “What’s There to Hold Onto?” was transposed from a piano ballad to an acoustic guitar song live, with Stella letting Shaye take over the guitar work, and she gave us chills with her delivery, and the soft and sweet “Peach” followed, and accented her ability to really convey such a wide range of feelings live. Throughout the night, she shared casual musings, chatted with the crowd, and expressed a lot of gratitude for fans giving her the space and support to find her way back with this album, seemingly sincerely touched by just how moved everyone was to see her return to stage. And though her performance was pitch-perfect, it gave the whole thing the feel of an intimate living room show full of friends.
After the propulsive and melancholy folk of “If She’ll Let Me,” a song about her parents’ divorce, before which Lennon pointed out her mother in the room (and said she can’t look at her during this one, or else she’ll cry) came one of the record’s more sarcastic and lively (almost Jenny Lewis-esque) tunes, the mansplaining indictment “Smartest Person in the Room,” which, though I’d love to hear someday with the full band arrangement of the album, felt just as poignant played acoustically. And bringing the main set to a close, the self-reflective “Too Quiet, Too Loud” was an earnest gut-punch, and was followed by the album’s final track, “Whatever That Means,” for which Stella recruited the audience for backing harmonies, ending the show (and the album playthrough) on a beautiful, shared moment. She returned, though, for one last song as an encore, treating us to Three. Two. One. favorite “Older Than I Am,” also, of course, performed in the same acoustic and intimate manner as the rest of the show. A great nod to where she’s been, after giving us a remarkable, vulnerable, and beautiful portrait of where she’s arrived as an artist, I couldn’t imagine a better way to experience a new album than this, nor for Lennon Stella to reintroduce herself as the artist she was always destined to be.
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All photos by Kelsea Whiting
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Setlist:
Comedy Show
Beginner’s Mind
Porcelain
Unforgivable Things
I Still Want You
Ta Da
What’s There to Hold Onto?
Peach
If She’ll Let Me
Smartest Person in the Room
Too Quiet, Too Loud
Whatever That Means
Older Than I Am
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