Bio
Singer-songwriter Anne-Marie Akin was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee where she learned the value of a good story from her Mama. Combining Southern roots with a Chicago sensibility, Anne-Marie weaves luminescent song-tales.
On the road Anne-Marie has sung and strummed both solo and with her band in Chicago, Austin, New York, Memphis, Nashville, and points in between. In addition to performing, Anne-Marie is a freelance composer specializing in community-based work. In 2011 she won a commission from the nationally recognized Old Town School of Folk Music to create Call and Response: Voices from the Old Town School, a cycle of original songs and spoken word based on the stories gathered from the Old Town School community. Call and Response played to a sold-out enthusiastic crowd and a standing ovation.
In 2012 Anne-Marie received an NEA funded artist residency at Ragdale to work on her first classical piece, The Vow, a Buddhist cantata celebrating the shared vow to create a world where every human life is treasured. Anne-Marie co-produced the SGI Chicago Artist's for Peace monthly concert series in Chicago's south loop.
In addition to guitar, she plays banjo, traditional Guinean percussion and is an accomplished vocalist. Her harmonies can be found on several Chicago area recordings and her children's tune Milkshake Song can be heard in classrooms all over the US. Reviewers have called her own recordings, I Fly to You and Still Dancing, “so inspiring” and “full of bursts of wisdom and joy,” (Windy City Times) and “Some of the finest entertainment in the musical world,” (Downeast CD and Record Review).
And Elvis Presley once kissed her mother’s hand.
On the road Anne-Marie has sung and strummed both solo and with her band in Chicago, Austin, New York, Memphis, Nashville, and points in between. In addition to performing, Anne-Marie is a freelance composer specializing in community-based work. In 2011 she won a commission from the nationally recognized Old Town School of Folk Music to create Call and Response: Voices from the Old Town School, a cycle of original songs and spoken word based on the stories gathered from the Old Town School community. Call and Response played to a sold-out enthusiastic crowd and a standing ovation.
In 2012 Anne-Marie received an NEA funded artist residency at Ragdale to work on her first classical piece, The Vow, a Buddhist cantata celebrating the shared vow to create a world where every human life is treasured. Anne-Marie co-produced the SGI Chicago Artist's for Peace monthly concert series in Chicago's south loop.
In addition to guitar, she plays banjo, traditional Guinean percussion and is an accomplished vocalist. Her harmonies can be found on several Chicago area recordings and her children's tune Milkshake Song can be heard in classrooms all over the US. Reviewers have called her own recordings, I Fly to You and Still Dancing, “so inspiring” and “full of bursts of wisdom and joy,” (Windy City Times) and “Some of the finest entertainment in the musical world,” (Downeast CD and Record Review).
And Elvis Presley once kissed her mother’s hand.