Annie DiRusso

Annie DiRusso is a singer and guitarist based in Nashville, having grown up in New York's Hudson Valley before moving south for college. She started putting out music during the pandemic and built an audience largely through songs shared online, with a run of singles circulating well before her first full-length album arrived.

Her writing is conversational and specific, drawing on family, religion, relationships and self-doubt, delivered in a voice that shifts easily from muttered aside to full-throated shout. The arrangements lean on distorted guitars and loud-quiet dynamics familiar from 1990s alternative rock, and her band's live shows are noticeably more forceful than the recordings.

Her debut album, Super Pedestrian, drew notice from outlets including NPR Music and Paper Magazine, and a deluxe edition of the record followed. Since starting out, she has opened shows for artists such as HAIM, Samia, Declan McKenna, beabadoobee, Djo and Peach Pit.

She has also headlined on her own terms, including a sold-out show at New York's Webster Hall, a marker of how far word-of-mouth support for her songs had carried by that point.