Annie Sellick

A story. Well, I have many, as I have not always been a good girl. I have milked the dress and heels during my twenties. I have fallen down stairs and ended up in the hospital before my gig where I received stitches. I got a standing ovation for showing up to my own show 30 minutes late with a bandage on my chin, straight from the hospital. And then I rocked the room.

This is what makes me scratch my head, when journalists want a STORY. I have them. I just shouldn't tell them. But don't we all? Welcome to the personal version!

She was a gerontology major working in the summers at the nursing home. The 40 hours a week felt like she had to give her life away to have an address and electricity on. She was twenty.

Was that all there was?

She quit the job and went to a rainbow gathering of hippies in the national forest, where she hitchhiked from St. Louis to Quebec. Annie hung out with street performers, sang for change in a cup, slept on floors and made jewelry to get by. That experience of throwing herself out there, being brave and taking risks was the most rewarding of her life. She felt that a greater force was taking care of her and a surprise was around every corner. She dreaded her hair and changed her name from Anne to Annie, so she would always remember that life could be amazing and anything was possible.

Hitchhiking home from that trip, Annie had a new attitude that could create her own destiny. She started sitting in with that jazz band in her college town. The guitarist, Roland Gresham, was a mostly retired old-school jazz gem, but the venue was a rock-and-roll and alternative club. Soon, Annie was embraced by Murfreesboro's exciting music community. It was during that time that she started to see herself as a musician. She discovered that she had something exciting to offer, if you gave her a stage and a room full of people. The music around her was rockin', but she rocked out with swinging jazz, her new passion.

She got caught up with the purists at the Nashville Jazz Workshop who whipped her into shape musically, but also made her shave her legs. At 25, she was a local star with gobs of press. But she needed to spread out. In the spirit of finding your own way, she pulled out the old backpack, found cheap flights on Southwest and booked rooms in youth hostels. She went to Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Montreal and sat in at clubs. She met as many people who share the love of jazz as she could find. Eventually, Annie got gigs at those places and hired the bands who had let her sit in. Slowly, a national identity was forming.

Thanks to a good southern upbringing, Annie is as classy as she is free-spirited. Talent and professional attitude led her to work with people like Joey DeFrancesco or Jeff Hamilton, two of her jazz heroes. Her dedication to jazz made her record five CDs on her own label. She has toured Japan, Europe and the U.S. and performed for thousands of people. Annie has worked tirelessly for the last 15 years to become one of the most appreciated performers in jazz today.

Now Annie encourages others to take risks. She hosts a singer's retreat twice a year in the mountains in Tennessee. She works for the Girl Scouts taking girls hiking, camping, rapelling while singing campsongs. She works with teenagers at Act Like a Grrrl (ALAG), writing songs with them and demonstrating how to make a life doing what you love. In 2009, a similar program was extended to the Tennessee Women's Prison where Annie helped the inmates write a song, allowing them to express themselves even though incarcerated.

Annie's dream is real. The story is true. And her journey continues.