artist Ann Walton

Ann Walton is a Canadian singer/songwriter who has been honing her craft for years. Growing up she wrote poetry and listened to old jazz greats like Sarah Vaughan, and her good ear meant picking out melodies on her parent's old upright piano. Since she first took the stage in her home town of Winnipeg, fans have been captivated by Walton's seemingly effortless piano playing and her original poetry set to song. Since releasing her debut album in August '07, Ann has graced stages from Vancouver to Toronto and has performed at a variety of conferences and showcases. She has also recently shared stages with Mark Berube, Danny Michel and Steve Forbert among others. 'In a moment of teen rebellion, Ann Walton decided she’d stop taking piano lessons and play the guitar instead. But in her mid-20s, when she came back to her senses — and back to the keyboard — Winnipeg’s music scene became a whole lot richer. Walton’s is not a sound we hear often in the ‘Peg: an old-time touch on the ivories meets a new-school sense of song. That smoky, jazzy sound (which thrilled audiences at the 2007 NXNE festival, and debuted on last year‘s Top of the Hill album) could be the musical child of Tom Waits and Ella Fitzgerald, or stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Rufus Wainwright; but for all those comparisons, Walton is a true prairie original.' -courtesy of Melissa Martin and the Winnipeg Folk Festival 2008

Ann Walton