Live Music with Annie Stokes

Annie Stokes is a dark Americana songstress and folk lyricist from the foot hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Virginia. Raised on musical theater and her mom’s oldies, she began writing poetry and short stories at a young age. When she picked up a guitar at age 20, everything clicked and she fulfilled her destiny of becoming an emotional millennial troubadour. She began her career by playing open mics, street festivals, and wineries around her native Virginia, slowly graduating to festivals, night clubs, and regional tours across the East Coast. “I like a hook, and I like a song that dredges up specific memories and feelings, rather than generic rushes of serotonin,” she says of her songwriting style. “From the beginning, I would get inspired by snippets of conversations I would hear, or certain smells, or little moments.” Her songwriting catalogue reflects this embrasure of the niche/relatable: some songs are inspired by deep-dives into Wikipedia pages about missing people, and others are inspired by the short and shrouded lives of the Romanov princesses (who doesn’t love a late-night journey into historical mysteries?).