Oh, hi!
I’m Annie Bethancourt, a writer and musician from Portland, Oregon.
And here’s a picture of me dressed as Moira Rose for Halloween!
I’ve been playing around with words and music since I was a small squishy thing, with varied activities such as:
Publishing a DIY neighborhood newspaper with classifieds about smelly socks
Playing the piano with my toothbrush
Writing alternative D.A.R.E lyrics to Whitney Houston Songs
Singing emo teenage love ballads into my TalkBoy voice recorder.
After receiving a Sociology degree from the University of California, San Diego (that I promptly put in a box), I independently released my first folk album The Garage Sessions in 2003.
Since then I’ve recorded 5 more albums (2 full-lengths and one EP, and 2 full-length records with the Portland band Ages and Ages), toured all over the United States and Europe, been featured on an NPR Tiny Desk concert, and shared the stage with artists like Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Gregory Alan Isakov, Nicklecreek, and members of Wilco.
Wow! Really? All this, while still managing to be a starving artist who once had to glue beads on string for hours on end in a factory in order to pay rent? It’s almost like a conventional artistic career isn’t financially sustainable!
Cool, but what’s THE ANNIEGRAM?
THE ANNIEGRAM is a scramble of letter-treasures sent to your email inbox once a week, where I write about all manner of things like: seasonal depression, joy at finding the perfect burrito, how to be creative when you’re sad, productivity hacks that aren’t annoying, and what it means to pursue a life of meaning with equal parts buoyant hope and existential despair. PLUS, MENTAL HEALTH MEMES AND LINKS TO COOL THINGS!
I believe I’m here on this spinning dirt-ball to create words of humor and hope that help people feel not so alone. So wherever you are and whatever’s going on in your life, I hope THE ANNIEGRAM helps you feel seen, heard, and more than OK (even when you’re not OK).
XO,
Annie
P.S Want to scope out some of my fave posts? Gee golly thanks! Check out:
When Worse Comes to Worst Comes to Borscht
