Annie Stokes

And after a decade of honing her creative crafts, she's learned a thing or two about cultivation and surrender.

Raised on the seam of urban and rural living in the foothills of the eastern Blue Ridge Mountains, Annie grew up performing for others. It wasn't until she taught herself guitar at age 21 that she finally blended her loves of storytelling and singing. From there, her budding notion that she was born to share her art with others led her on a meandering journey through the Shenandoah Valley, the evangelical towns of central Virginia, the labyrinth of damp green rooms in DC, sunbaked music festivals, and dozens of rental cars and hotels on the state highways that vein from the Carolinas to Boston. After spending her twenties trying to fit into various boxes and please certain gatekeepers, the experience of motherhood taught her how to surrender to the songs that had been inside of her all along. The result? A sensitive, dark-hued hybrid of country and singer-songwriter music that fans have described as "Alison Krauss meets Nick Cave." 

The accolades soon followed. Her 2021 LP, "The One That Gets Away", was awarded "Best Americana/Country Album" at the 2022 Wammies, Washington DC's prestigious music awards ceremony. She was a 2024 Semi-Finalist for the Bernard Ebb Songwriting Competition, and her 2025 album "Ghostwriter" charted on Folk Alliance Radio and Alt-Country Radio, as well as garnering 8 out of 10 stars from Americana UK. 

Annie's music combines traditional country and folk song structure with modern lyrical sensibilities, and her live shows invite audiences into a front-porch conversation about life with biting commentaries about parenthood, heartbreak, and hope. 

She co-writes with her husband, bass player Will Berger. When they aren't making music, they are raising two girls and lots of hell in Virginia.