Night Watch / Tom Scanlon
Waking up to the talents of rising star Vienna Teng

	GLEN ROSE National Public Radio features and TV appearances have helped singer-songwriter/pianist Vienna Teng reach a wide, growing audience. She opens for Joan Baez tonight at the Moore.
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Vienna Teng might be the next Asian-American singing sensation, following in the footsteps of, well, there was ... Or would she be the first?

While it is unfair to pigeonhole this mainstream singer based on her race, the "bonus track" on her dazzling new album is quite a respectful bow to her heritage.

"The name of the hidden track," Teng says, in a phone conversation from her San Francisco apartment, "is 'The Green Island Serenade' — I sing it in Mandarin. It's a Taiwanese folk song — my parents came from Taiwan."

When she sings the song in concert, "you can always see 40 or so Chinese people in the crowd, nodding their heads, singing along."

For the most part, though, Teng sings her richly layered songs in English, with a voice that sounds like the whisperings of a sage interior monologue. She is a classically trained pianist and superior singer-songwriter whose career is rising like a rocket — and she just might take Seattle's Virt Records along with her (see related story). National Public Radio features and TV appearances, most notably on the "Late Show with David Letterman," have helped her reach a wide, growing audience.

Concert preview Joan Baez, with opener Vienna Teng, 8 p.m. today, Moore Theatre, 1932 Second Ave., Seattle; $35-$42 (206-682-1414, 206-628-0888 or Ticketmaster). Teng also appears at noon Saturday, Borders Books & Music, 505 Bellevue Square, Bellevue; free (425-990-8171).

After packing the Crocodile Cafe in September (the singer was charmed to see multigenerational Asian families in the rock club), Teng returns to Seattle to open for Joan Baez at the Moore Theatre tonight. Teng also has a free show at Borders Books & Music in Bellevue at noon Saturday.

She'll be singing from her two albums, "Waking Hour" and the just-released "Warm Strangers." Entertainment Weekly's review will likely boost sales: "With lilting vocals reminiscent of Tori Amos and lush strings that underscore her intricate piano arrangements, Teng serves up sharp songs that tackle relationships, religion and her native San Francisco."

Tori is one comparison Teng gets often, Sarah McLachlan another. A San Jose Mercury News writer said her music sounds "like a child of Chopin and Sarah McLachlan."

"The comparisons keep coming up, I can't complain," Teng says. "Tori and Sarah comparisons I get a lot, but I think it's fair because I listened to them a lot in college." While she's been lumped in with Dido and Jewel, she politely says, "I do appreciate comparisons to more literate and less pop-oriented singers. ... I'm more flattered to be compared to folk singers than pop singers."

Her new album certainly has elements of pop, with its lavish (and, occasionally, too busy) production; yet it never sounds "slick," as Teng's simple sincerity shines. The album title comes in part from trying to imagine the lives of casual acquaintances, and Teng enjoys slice-of-life songs, like "Mission Street" and "Homecoming."

While a close runner-up would have to be the uplifting, scales-climbing "Harbor" ("the light in me will guide you home"), perhaps the most powerful song on the new album is "Feather Moon," with its mantra-like chorus: "breathe in breathe out."

Seems pretty basic on paper, right? But it's beautiful. "I think that came from discovering Radiohead late in the game. I love the way Thom Yorke can take a phrase and repeat it, lay instruments over it, build it to a climactic moment."

Teng enjoys multiple meanings, and the title of her album also is a nod to the "warm strangers" she has met on tour. Places like this one. "Seattle has been wonderfully supportive. ... It's always amazing to me to have a fan base in another city — I come to Seattle and see the kind of turnout that comes to the shows, it's like, 'Wow, thanks, guys.' "

She's a lifelong resident of Northern California, where she started studying piano at 10, went to Stanford University and worked as a software writer before deciding to devote her energy to music. As much as she enjoys San Francisco, she sounds like she is ready for a change.

Since Teng is on Seattle's Virt Records, any chance she might move here? "I'm thinking either Seattle or Portland — I'm trying to talk my friends into moving up there en masse with me. ... One of them is up for it," she says with the laugh of someone for whom everything is falling into place, "but nobody else."

Elsewhere around town

• The Showbox has a big week, with hometown pop-rockers The Presidents of the United States of America ending a two-night run at 9 tonight ($14). It's a benefit for YouthCare, which serves homeless youth in Seattle.

The Melvins and Mudhoney will grunge up a storm at 9 p.m. Sunday at the Showbox ($15). And Grateful Dead member Bob Weir brings his Ratdog to the box of show at 9 p.m. Monday ($32.50).

• Seattle's Smith-disciples Aveo (ah-vay-o) busts out depressing — but beautiful! — songs from its new "Battery" (produced by Phil Ek) at 9 p.m. Sunday at the Crocodile ($8).

Lisa Loeb will be pumping up her Food Network TV show, "Dweezil & Lisa," at 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Croc ($15). The woman who brought us "Stay (I Missed You)" will sing, clown around and probably cook. Her partner, Dweezil Zappa, "has exited the tour," according to a publicist.

Tom Scanlon: tscanlon@seattletimes.com.

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