Ann-Marita Garsed
Singer/songwriter Ann-Marita Garsed is an artist who transcends genres, borders, and generations. From a diverse background in four countries on three different continents, Ann-Marita fuses her influences together into a sound that is rich with emotion, guts, honesty, and heart. She is a country crooner, a folk rocker, a survivor, but above all; a storyteller.
With a voice reminiscent of soulful country rock artists like Linda Ronstadt and Shelby Lynne, and a storytelling ability greatly influenced by icons like Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson, Ann-Marita has traveled far and wide, from Gothenburg to Melbourne, New Orleans, Berlin, and Alaska, armed with her acoustic guitar, playing anywhere from renowned festivals, to clubs, coffeehouses, and makeshift stages on flatbed trucks.
Her winding life path started with a humble upbringing in rural Norway, then it led her to Sweden, to Iowa, on to Los Angeles, and Australia... then back to California. With four solo albums released independently, the most recent one being the aptly titled "Geography" in 2022, her music has been heard through such diverse channels as Australian national television, inspirational talk radio station Hay House Radio, numerous Scandinavian festivals across the U.S., as well as the Hollywood wrap party for the Disney Animation hit movie “Frozen”.
She has also been featured as herself in a series of television commercials for WEN® Haircare in Scandinavia, and a 2016 God Morgon orange juice ad campaign, which garnered 1 million views on YouTube in the first two weeks after its release.
A few of the notable songs in Ann-Marita’s growing catalogue include “Company Town”, which was a 4th place winner in the Unisong International Songwriting Contest, and was inspired by her childhood years in a mining community North of the Arctic Circle, “State Line”, from the same 2007 album “Intuition”, written after Ann-Marita escaped a dangerous situation involving an abusive record producer, and “Karoline with a K”, from the 2014 EP “The Purple Ribbon Sessions”—an ode to a brave immigrant ancestor who posthumously inspired her to move out into the world at the age of fifteen. “There’s a piece of me in every song I write,” Ann-Marita says. “I couldn’t do it any other way. I’m big on being authentic and honest. I’m Scandinavian—it’s the only way we know how to be.”
Ann-Marita is the true essence of an independent artist, wearing as many hats as she can pile on top of one another, while still staying true to herself. “An Australian country music magazine once said about my music that it never falls into a formula, and I loved that,” Ann-Marita says. “The new album is no different. There are songs inspired by stories from the 1800s as well as present time Southern California, all mixed together into what I like to call Arctic Americana.”