About Lori Ann

Lori Ann writes anthems for midlife women who aren't done yet. A Billboard Songwriting Award-winning singer-songwriter with Nashville roots, she's been a fixture of St. Augustine's live music scene for over a decade, and her first new single, Not Done Yet, is coming soon.

A Musical Mutt by Design

Lori Ann is a bit of a musical mutt by design. Raised outside New York City, with a mother who hailed from Florida and Georgia and a father from New York, she grew up straddling two worlds, and her ear was always half-southern, even when her zip code wasn't. That blend shows up in everything she does: the sunny disposition and songwriting instincts people compare to Dolly Parton, the effortless genre-crossing of Sheryl Crow or Shania Twain, and a voice with more grit and depth than her demeanor lets on, the kind that draws comparisons to Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin.

From New York to Nashville

That southern pull eventually became impossible to ignore. After years fronting a regional country rock band in New York, Lori Ann packed a U-Haul with nothing but her guitar, her keyboard, and a leap of faith, and moved to Nashville without knowing a soul. She spent years beating the pavement of Music Row, demo tape in hand, before landing a record deal. She became a featured songwriter at the world-famous Bluebird Cafe, the room that's launched more country careers than almost any other stage in America, and advanced to the regional finals of USA Network's Nashville Star in Houston, one step from the national Top 10 in the season Chris Young went on to win. She co-wrote in rooms alongside notable songwriters including Keith Urban, opened for touring artists like Kate Campbell, Claire Lynch, and the Reno Brothers, and worked steadily as a demo session singer, lending her voice to songs written by others long before most listeners heard her own.

The Music

Lori Ann wrote and recorded three albums of original music: On My Way; This Town, a local favorite that pays tribute to her adopted home of St. Augustine; and Also Known as Love, produced by Nashville songwriter Charlie Craig, whose songs were recorded by Dolly Parton, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, George Strait, and Johnny Cash. That album includes "You're So Much More," the song that earned Lori Ann a Billboard Songwriting Award and later received radio airplay on stations including WQIK in Jacksonville, cementing what Music Row already knew: this was a songwriter with something to say.

Long before "building an email list" was something anyone talked about, she was doing it the old-fashioned way, one person at a time. She knew her fans by name, remembered their stories, and turned show nights into something closer to a reunion than a performance. That instinct for genuine connection, more than any marketing strategy, is what filled rooms for her for over a decade.

Back, With Something to Say

After about a decade away from the stage, Lori Ann is back, and better than ever. She's lived a lot of life since the last time she picked up a pen: a divorce, the loss of her father, raising two children, and caring for her mother. Now the songs are pouring out, and they sound like nothing she's written before. They're bluesy pop and southern blues-rock with crunchy guitars and Hammond organ, with a throwback spirit in the tradition of Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, and Bonnie Raitt. It's the same voice, but a fuller one.

Her new music is being released one song at a time, starting with Not Done Yet, the first single from her upcoming album, coming soon. These are honest songs for Gen X and every woman in midlife who's been told the best part is behind her. Lori Ann calls her listeners The Midlifers, and she's building more than an album: a community for anyone in the middle of the story who isn't done yet.

She still plays live every week, and her sets move across decades of soul, rock, country, and pop, from Stevie Nicks to Adele, Janis Joplin to Don Henley, without ever sounding like a jukebox. Whether she's covering a classic or playing one of her own, Lori Ann brings warmth, presence, and a little grit to every room, the kind of music with feeling, not filler, that turns a night into something you will always remember.