Anne Donohue

Anne developed her vocal sound while performing with various New England blues and rock bands. Four years with Eight to the Bar, the region's longest running and most popular swing and R&B band, helped Anne gain a reputation as a singer with a sweet and powerful vocal sound; the next three years her collaboration with an original music femal vocal trio called the Who Whos further cemented it. As a result of this reputation, Anne contributed vocals to a number of recordings, including New Orleans blues singer and guitarist Kenny Neal's Blues Fallin' Down Like Rain on the Telarc label and Wicked Time by Christine Ohlman of the Saturday Night Live Band.
It was well into the Eight to the Bar leg of her career before Anne blew the dust off of her guitar and began writing music. An early collaboration with Kingsnake recording artists Young Neal and the Vipers won Best New Song in the Providence Phoenix Music Awards, and soon she was contributing as a writer and guitarist to groups like The Who Whos. From there she and percussionist Rich Dart formed an original music duo, Anne Donohue and Rich Dart, and the duo released a self titled debut CD in the spring of 2000. One of the songs from this release–a dark, sparse ballad titled "Little Boy in Between"–earned a spot on the Oasis Acoustic Sampler CD, which is distributed to radio stations nationally. Her songs, like her vocal sound, have been touched by a wide range of musical influences–from Billy Holiday to Led Zeppelin to Tom Waits–and feature haunting pop melodies over delicate guitar lines and evocative lyrics. The dynamic emotional range of her music, as well as her delivery, has drawn comparisons to a variety of artists including Ricki Lee Jones, Edie Brickell, and the Cowboy Junkies.