Heartland Roots…and Spreading Wings.

Born in a small farm town in the northern plains of North Dakota, Anna O. started piano lessons at age nine. These first tentative plinks and plunks would eventually unearth a rich musical vein running through her heart and life, but at high school she began a decade-long detour toward drawing and painting, which eventually led to multiple Fine Arts degrees from Oregon and New Mexico. But her musical calling was not to be ignored.

"Making art was satisfying on many levels," says Anna, "but for me, music was the thing that really got to the emotional core of things." Though her eclectic musical tastes run from folk to blues to alternative to all points in between, the trinity of Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Patti Smith remained Anna's constant musical touchstones. She continued to explore and push herself musically, adding voice, guitar and songwriting to her now formidable keyboard skills…and soon found herself making waves in Tampa, Florida's music scene.

A Beginning, and a Fever.
By 2001, Anna's debut CD, "One Big Universe" was grabbing the attention of peers and critics alike, and quickly pushed her onto the performance circuit in the Tampa Bay area. With one foot in folk-rock and the other in alternative pop, Anna's early solo work was often intensely personal and suffused with melancholy. Tori Amos before Anna even knew who Tori Amos was.

In Anna's own words, her debut "One Big Universe" was "symbolic and personal, but it was also a full band, and very rockin' and pop. I knew I had some work to do to get to where I wanted to be in terms of integrating my folk roots with my more alternative leanings."

Over the next few years, Anna wrote feverishly, woodshedding in a dogged quest to unify her disparate musical gifts and interests. The result was an avalanche of startling creativity that would cement her reputation as "an artist to be reckoned with" (Eric Snider, Weekly Planet) in Tampa and beyond.

Here Comes the Flood.
During the period of 2002-2003, Anna O. would record 33 songs and release three more recordings—"Pink Heart, Blue Tattoo", "Horses, God, and The Perfect Kiss" and a 3-song EP, "SugarPop." This outpouring of work firmly planted her among the "who's who" of Tampa Bay musicians, garnering her multiple "Best of the Bay" Awards; a Nashville publishing contract; a coveted showcase at Austin's famed SXSW music festival; a song in an Indie film; and an avid and quickly growing fan base. Her innovative musical stylings and literate lyrics seemed to grab the attention of just about everyone, and her live performances had progressed from good to captivating (as Focus magazine put it, "Anna's confessional tone and guileless manner never fail to pull an audience in until you can hear a pin drop or a heart beat").

A melting pot of talent—including leading Bay area lights such as Steve Connelly (guitar), Andy Irvine (bass), Jim Morris (guitar) and Mark Prator (drums) among many others—helped bring her visions to fruition. Recorded and co-produced by Jim Morris at Tampa's premier recording facility, Morrisound Studios, Anna is quick to credit her collaborators. "I could never have produced something like that," she says, "without the hands, hearts and minds of these amazing musicians who all became good friends in the process."

Life Happens.
Seemingly poised for the next big step, Anna O. was close to signing a record deal with a Nashville indie label when the unthinkable caused her to change course once again. "A tsunami," relates Anna, "nearly wiped me off the planet, interrupting everything." The tsunami was her husband's suicide, which led in turn to a long period of struggling and searching. Ensuing health problems landed her in a state of physical rehab for the next 3-1/2 years, and Anna pulled up her Tampa roots to head back to the healing deserts of New Mexico.

After two years in New Mexico, her heartland roots called her back home to North Dakota. There she began to unearth the 11 songs that she had shelved in Tampa six years prior. With her health and energy back in full swing, Anna made several trips back to Tampa to finish the mixing and mastering of the recordings.

The cycle of songs would become her most purely personal to date. The result is a coalescence of bracing honesty and haunting beauty that suffuses the 11 songs on “Comin’ Home,” her most cohesive and affecting CD to date. Co-produced and recorded by producer/guitarist guru, Steve Connelly, at his studio, Zen Recording in Florida, Anna feels like the creation of the CD brought her ever closer to not only letting go of some painful memories, but also, on a musical level, to a much more accomplished level of songwriting.

"Digging deep", Anna says, "often takes you to places you'd rather not be. But nevertheless, it's exactly where you need to be if you're ever going to get yourself out of the muck. Not everything I write is personal, of course; I write about what I observe in other people and relationships and sometimes it's a blend of personal things and worldly things. But regardless of content, I'm not going to candy-coat the truth. I don't censure myself when I write. I put it all out there…that seems to be the only way to see things clearly and become aware and therefore, have the chance to learn something. Even in my earlier writings, which are written in a more symbolic, playful and allegorical style, the truth is there, always."

"I feel really good right now,” says Anna. “It’s taken a lot of stamina and endurance and courage to get me through some very trying times, but that's now all in the past. I've let go. I'm not going to look back; I'm looking forward.”

With plans already begun for her next two projects, Anna feels more in touch with her muse than ever, and more at peace with letting the creative process happen at a natural pace. “Since I got started with music later in life,” she continues, “I used to feel like I had a lot of catching up to do to equal my peers. As a result, I think I've worked at things with the pedal to the floor most of the time. There's just so much more I want to accomplish, so many good songs yet to write, and so much more to explore in terms of music, arrangements and recording. In fact, I really feel like my best work is still ahead."