Today we’d like to introduce you to Annick Odom.
Hi Annick, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m a Belgian-American performer–composer, storyteller, and folk singer, originally from Morgantown, West Virginia. My path into music hasn’t been linear. I grew up playing classical clarinet and bass, studied performance and psychology at the University of Michigan, and later moved to Europe, where I lived in The Hague for about six years studying at the Royal Conservatoire.
While I was in Michigan and then the Netherlands, I was surrounded by experimental musicians and composers who really expanded how I thought about sound and what music could be. At the same time, I started reconnecting with the Appalachian music I grew up around but hadn’t appreciated at the time, including ballads, fiddle tunes, and unaccompanied singing, and began to hear those traditions differently.
After returning to the U.S., I reconnected to the Southeast Michigan music community. That scene has been incredibly formative for me: there’s such a strong mix of folk, jazz, and new music happening there, and a real openness to collaboration. Many of the musicians on Linen of Words come out of that community, and the album really reflects those relationships and that shared musical language.
Over time, those two worlds (experimental composition and traditional Appalachian music) started to merge in my work. I became especially interested in storytelling forms like crankies (hand-cranked moving panoramas), and in creating performances that combine music, visuals, and narrative in a really immediate, human way.
Linen of Words comes directly out of that whole journey. It’s probably the closest reflection so far of the kind of music I want to continue to make, inspired by Appalachian traditions, improvisation, collaboration, and a lot of cross-genre exploration.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. A big turning point was the pandemic. I was living in Europe at the time, and everything kind of came to a halt all at once. It interrupted a lot of momentum, both musically and personally, and made me rethink where I wanted to be and what kind of work I wanted to make.
Moving between countries has also been challenging. Each time I relocated, I had to rebuild community almost from scratch, finding collaborators, figuring out where I fit artistically, and learning how different music scenes function. That process can be really exciting, but also isolating at times.
Coming back to the U.S., one of the biggest challenges was reconnecting with musicians after being away for so long. Relationships in music are so often built through being physically present, by playing together, going to shows, informal jams. It took time to re-enter those spaces and feel like I was part of a community again.
At the same time, those challenges really shaped Linen of Words. The album is built on reconnection, working with people across different places and phases of my life, and finding ways to create something cohesive out of that distance and change.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a performer–composer and storyteller, and my work sits at the intersection of Appalachian folk traditions and experimental music. I write and arrange for voice and small ensembles, often blending traditional ballads with original material, and I’m especially interested in how music can carry stories that are historical, personal, and communal.
A big part of my practice involves crankies, which are hand-cranked moving panoramas that I perform alongside live music. They allow me to combine visual art, storytelling, and sound in a really direct way, and they’ve become central to how I think about performance.
I also collaborate a lot across genres. Many of the musicians I work with come from folk, jazz, and contemporary classical backgrounds, and I’m drawn to that in-between space where those styles overlap. Improvisation plays a big role in my work, as does a sense of flexibility, creating music that can adapt to different spaces, ensembles, and audiences.
What I feel most proud of is building projects that are both artistically rigorous and deeply community-oriented. Whether that’s through performances, recordings like Linen of Words, or organizing events like a crankie festival, I’m always thinking about how to create spaces where people can connect, across disciplines, backgrounds, and traditions.
I think what sets my work apart is that it doesn’t treat tradition and experimentation as opposites. Instead, I see them as part of the same continuum, ways of listening, responding, and telling stories that are constantly evolving.
Any big plans?
I’m already starting to think about the next album, which feels like it might go in a very different direction, something more stripped down, just voice and bass. I’m interested in what happens when I take away some of the layers and focus on what I can do as a solo artist, especially with storytelling and unaccompanied or lightly accompanied songs.
I’m also in the middle of organizing a crankie festival in Morgantown, West Virginia, where I grew up. It’s been really exciting to build something like that from the ground up and to bring artists together around this form. The idea was definitely inspired by the Detroit Cantastoria Festival, which has been such a meaningful gathering for this kind of community, and I’m hoping to create something that has a similar spirit, collaborative, welcoming, and focused on storytelling.
More broadly, I’m looking forward to continuing to develop projects that bring people together, whether that’s through recordings, performances, or community events, and to keep exploring that space between tradition and experimentation in new ways.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.annick-odom.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/linenofwords/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/linenofwords
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/AnnickOdom
- Other: https://annickodom.bandcamp.com/
