Canal Street’s Everything Nice record store welcomed a unique visitor recently, a folk music star in the making named Lisa Houdei. She performs under the name Biita, which is Persian for “unique.”

Houdei is from Defiance, Missouri, and of Iranian extraction. “My Iranian family came to America in the ‘70s, before the revolution,” she said. “My dad could see that trouble was coming.”

Defiance was – and is – a very small town. “There was just one store, it’s still there.” The other obvious thing to her was that there “wasn’t much diversity.” Things opened up for Houdei when her family moved to suburban St. Louis. She played on the varsity volleyball team, and transitioned from playing clarinet to the guitar.

“My dad, he’s a jazz musician, plays the bass, he said you should pick an instrument and really learn to play. So, I picked guitar.”

That first guitar was an acoustic, but she loved emo, the Beatles, and Led Zeppelin (especially Led Zeppelin II, the one that kicks off with “Whole Lotta Love”), so pretty soon she had a grey Ibanez electric guitar to keep up with her favorite songs.

“I became a rocker girl,” she recalls. “I started writing music at 18.”

Her music can be thought of as folk but has psychedelic textures, described as “luminous” and “deeply lived in.” Laughing, again, she said, “My songs take strange turns.” Check out “Night Fright” on YouTube. Haunting, delicate, and interesting.

Houdei used to perform under the name LéPonds, and has four albums under her belt. Along with the name change has come a move to Woodstock last November. She was in Ulster when she released her first album as Biita, This Bed Was Made for Me. It’s been getting good reviews and she will be touring Europe playing it soon.

Down in Ellenville with her album, she said, “I really love my little cabin in the woods that I’m renting. It lends itself to me in many artistic ways. I love Upstate New York.”

Even the winters?

“Oh, my, I skied for the first time last winter. Terrifying, but I loved it – I didn’t fall.”

So now she’s off to Europe. Any chance we will hear her in Ellenville?

“Well, I just need some place to play in.”

It may happen.