TROUBADOUR 77

Troubadour 77, an Americana duo often referred to as T77, is the brainchild of award-winning singer-songwriters Anna Wilson and Monty Powell who are forging a sound and spirit that celebrates the tradition of the American troubadour.  Their compelling performances are rich with raw and honest emotion, and their songs sing of social change, life, death, love, hope and redemption that play like musical love letters to their influences, the troubadours of the Laurel Canyon era. 

Wilson and Powell have been married for 24 years and making music together as artists, songwriters and producers in Nashville for over three decades.  As songwriters, they have collectively written a dozen #1 songs and countless album cuts that appear on over 70 million records, co-produced unique special projects that pay tribute to the Eagles, Billy Joel and the Countrypolitan era of music, and penned the international theme song for Habitat for Humanity. Yet instead of enjoying the rays of light from their accomplished careers, they took a deep breath and reinvented themselves in 2016 by forming Troubadour 77. 

Their duo name was inspired by two things, the troubadours who came before them, and the year 1977.  Not only was it an iconic year for music, but it was also when Anna turned five and realized that she wanted to be a singer, as she belted out Linda Ronstadt’s Greatest Hits into a hairbrush in her room in Pennsylvania.  Wilson says, “The current zeitgeist is not so different than that of the late 60s and early 70s.  Right now we are every bit in a climate and culture similar to where many of our musical heroes and influences found themselves.  They taught us that it’s an artist’s job to engage by using art to craft a voice that can affect change.  We are just trying to do our part to inspire and let people know they are not alone.”  Their name is also a subtle nod to Doug Weston’s Troubadour club in Los Angeles where so many of their heroes got their start.  Powell adds, “The Troubadour was Los Angeles’ version of Nashville’s Bluebird Café, a place where songwriters and artists could bare their souls and find a sense of community through art. We are troubadours observing the world and not afraid to write and sing about it.”  In fact, their song “American Revival” is a call to action for hope in changing times. Powell, who penned the song on a plane flight from Nashville to Los Angeles states, “I felt like it was just delivered to me.  In the spirit of our heroes who responded through their songs to what was going on in the world in a spirit of poetic reflection, that’s what I believe happened with American Revival.” Wilson adds, “We were not seated together on that flight and when we landed, he sang these words it in my ear standing at baggage claim, ‘…In this American, American Revival…Hope and love hangin’ tough just for survival…Peace train in the rain, right on time arrival…The soul of the nation knows the time has come.’  I instantly knew it was special, important and needed.”  Listen here:  https://smarturl.it/T77AmericanRevival

Monty, a Georgia native, was just three years old when the Beatles took the stage on that historic night, February 9, 1964, and ten years old when the Allman Brothers made their unforgettable live recordings at Fillmore East in 1971.  In 1977, Anna was five years old singing into a hairbrush in her room in Pennsylvania when Rumours and Hotel California came out.  Perhaps it was fate that caused the perfect storm of the current times colliding and fusing with the seasons of their own lives to form a new muse, one that they could not deny. “When you hear the call, you have to answer,” says Wilson, “So, here we are in this second act putting out a message that we believe in and hope others will believe in too.”  Ever since that new muse came calling it has only gotten louder and is resonating in their two studio albums that are currently available, Revolution & Redemption and Selma Ave.

Recently, their expertise for creating unique collaborative and genre-bending projects has led them to co-executive produce a project called A Nashville State of Mind featuring Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Tim McGraw and others who re-imagine the songs of the incomparable Billy Joel that has been years in the making. Additionally, they also have co-written and starred in an autobiographical musical called SONGSTARS that recently debuted with a residency at the historic Woolworth Theatre in Nashville.

But nowhere is their deep connection to the folk-rock era more evidently found than on their current project to date, Canyon Angel, a documentary film in-the-making whose inspirational tale chronicles the redemptive journey that Wilson found herself on at the dawning of her 50th decade and how it intersects with Powell. A pilgrimage that took her from her hometown of Chester Springs, Pennsylvania to Nashville to Los Angeles and back.  Wilson says, “I’ve had a very diverse career that has blended genres in unique ways but at the heart of my creative soul has always been a deep connection to the musical movement of Laurel Canyon that I never got to be a part of simply because I was born too late. This film is the story of my redemptive journey to uncover, rediscover and reclaim the lost piece of my creative soul that I call the ‘Canyon Angel’.”

Troubadour 77 has re-ignited a flame and they are carrying the torch forward for modern audiences, calling for change the old fashioned way, with a melody and a lyric. They have already shared billings with artist comrades Emmylou Harris, Brandi Carlile, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Rodney Crowell, Los Lobos, Robert Randolph & The Family Band and others.  Now as they drive forward to find and broaden their musical tribe of TROUBelievers, as their followers call themselves, they are singing out one song at a time to maybe, just maybe, help bring about that change that is gonna come on a musical journey that will make you laugh, cry, stop and think, and celebrate the power of a song.