Anna Elizabeth Laube • Riverboat Lounge

Bio: Anna Elizabeth Laube is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer whose songs have been featured on NPR, BBC Radio, and XM/Sirius Satellite Radio. “Her voice is an alluringly warm, friendly instrument—sweet without becoming cloying, tender and heartfelt and rich,” writes Todd Lavoie of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Born in Iowa City, IA, and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, Anna Elizabeth Laube (pronounced “Lau” like “now” and “be” like “to be or not to be”) played piano, saxophone, and violin during her formative years and later studied oboe at the Académie de Musique Grétry in Liège, Belgium, on a high school Rotary scholarship. She picked up guitar along the way.

After college she started performing her own songs at a San Francisco neighborhood cafe on Castro St. called Le Bon Gateau and soon recorded her first record, Outta My Head, behind which she toured extensively.

In 2009, Anna released her second album, Pool All The Love * Pool All The Knowledge. Written in living rooms from Austin, TX to Volcano, HI, the album documented a life on the road less traveled after she quit her “real job,” sold her belongings, and started exploring the country by plane, train, and automobile. Traveling around the country wielding a guitar had its challenges, but for Anna, it felt right, and necessary.

In 2010, she landed back in Madison and was a top 3 finalist in Project M, a songwriting contest sponsored by Madison’s AAA station, 105.5FM. In late 2012 she was announced as a top 10 finalist in Sing For The Trees, a national songwriting contest developed to bring attention to the pine beetle epidemic plaguing some of our nation’s forests. Chuck Leavell, an avid environmentalist, tree farmer, and master keyboard player (The Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers, John Mayer), judged the contest.

“The submissions we received were of very high songwriting quality,” he said. After receiving nearly 300 original song submissions, 10 artists were selected as finalists, including Anna for her song, “Tree” (studio recording forthcoming). In 2013, Anna released a throwback rock n’ roll song entitled “Oh My! (Oh Me Oh Me Oh My),” featuring the signature blues/rock keys of Leavell.

In 2014 Anna was voted Madison’s Favorite Singer-Songwriter in the Isthmus Readers’ Poll. That fall, she returned to San Francisco and finished work on her new recordings, and in 2015 released her third studio record, Anna Laube. Her song “Already There” reached #6 on the Folk DJ charts, and songs from the album have been featured multiple times on the BBC and on folk and Americana stations around the world. Reviews have appeared in Maverick Magazine, R2 Magazine, Folk Radio UK, For The Country Record, Lonesome Highway, and many more.

In Feb. 2016, Anna charted on the EuroAmericana charts for the first time, debuting at #12.