THE SHORT OF IT

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Anna Kline is a songwriter, musician, and writer who is currently the Business Development Director of the International Bluegrass Music Association. She facilitates partnerships and programming for IBMA and their yearly event World of Bluegrass.

A self-professed Southern culture junkie, Anna grew up in North Mississippi in the small town of Hernando, located between Memphis and the Delta—an area with a complex history that yielded its famously vibrant food and arts culture.  

Anna explores the world through music, photography and video, and by facilitating culture & heritage projects and programs that aid in the preservation and promotion of Southern music and art.

As a musician and songwriter, she toured the Southeast and Europe for over ten years, appearing at MerleFest, Bristol Rhythm and Roots, CountryFest in Belgium—and more. With her husband, John Looney, their acoustic duo Grits & Soul appeared and performed on Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern (2017). She also performed on an episode of KET’s Kentucky Life with her friend, Linda Jean Stokley of The Local Honeys.

Anna and John released a new album in 2021 with her new band, Swift Silver, a name inspired by one of the earliest Kentucky legends about John Swift and his lost silver mine.

Swift Silver’s music was recently featured (2022) on Season 5 of John T. Edge’s show True South on the SEC Network. They are regular musical collaborators with many Kentucky and regional musicians.

In the spring of 2023, Anna was part of a Kentucky Roundtable discussion for Ari Wallach’s PBS series A Brief History of the Future. Advocates and community leaders were brought together to discuss how personal experiences led them to the work they do, what community really looks like, why we chose to stay and what we are building to create a better tomorrow. “A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUTURE asks us all – how can we become the great ancestors the future needs us to be?” Slated to air beginning April 3, 2024.

As a proud Kentucky Arts Council Community Scholar and Kentucky Arts Council Performing Artist Directory member, she continues to explore the diversity of the Southern experience in the Appalachian region through speaking and writing opportunities, with the sharing of stories through oral histories and video projects, and through song with regional musical performances. 

When she isn’t writing or performing as Swift Silver, you can find her huddled in a group of late-night pickers, onstage with Don Rogers and The Apostlebillies, or singing harmonies with The Local Honeys.

MEAT AND THREE

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Anna studied music business and film at the University of Memphis and in 2004, decided to focus on gathering experience when famed Southern soul, blues, and gospel label, Malaco Records hired her to work in their music licensing department.  Anna became versed in the ways as she became familiar with the legendary Malaco and Muscle Shoals Sound song catalogs, drafting contracts for television, film, and beyond. She also wrote blog posts full of everyday stories and news of the artists and songwriters that walked the halls.

Her freelance writing journey began just a couple of years later in 2006 with regularly published articles in the Jackson Free Press and DeSoto Magazine, which all focused on local music, food, and Southern culture topics; and, not too long thereafter, she was asked to write a monthly food and restaurant feature in Portico Jackson Magazine.

In 2009, theMississippi Development Authority, Division of Tourism hired Anna to research and write theMississippi Culinary Trail, an online resource for visitors, highlighting the foodways traditions and local hot-spot eateries across the state of Mississippi.

During her time at MDA, she worked on many special projects: she coordinated the first Mississippi music showcase at SXSW, was a location scout for the Mississippi Film Office, shot and edited a short documentary food film, and worked on numerous culture and heritage projects including the African-American Heritage sights along the Mississippi Freedom Trail. 

Over the summer of 2011, Anna had the opportunity to research story segment ideas for the Mississippi Public Broadcasting special television feature The Choctaw Journey, which profiled the history and cultural preservation of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

In 2012, her life went in a different direction when she took the plunge as a full-time musician and songwriter with her partner, John Looney, and their band, Grits & Soul. They wrote their first few songs together and eventually relocated to Asheville, North Carolina. It was there that the duo immersed themselves in Appalachian culture, released an album, and went on to extensively tour the Southeast region, playing such notable festivals as MerleFest and Bristol Rhythm and Roots. They were also invited to perform at CountryFest in Belgium and played shows in Italy and France. 

In 2015, they moved to John's native Kentucky, where they continue to perform regularly. The duo appeared on an episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern (2017) on The Travel Channel which covered The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail in Kentucky and Virginia. Anna was featured on an episode of KET’s (Kentucky Educational Television) Kentucky Life with her friend, Linda Jean Stokley of The Local Honeys, in a segment about songwriter Jim Ford.

Her freelance tourism work took her to Eastern Kentucky with projects that include the town of Prestonsburg, Kentucky, where she wrote monthly blog posts and content for the town’s travel guide, and she also stayed closer to home to work on website content and blog posts for Visit Jessamine.

In October 2018, Anna completed her certification in the Community Scholars Program through the Kentucky Arts Council. This program “trains members of a community in documentation, interpretation and dissemination of their unique local cultural resources and traditional art forms.”

She is program director for Mt. Sterling’s Small Town America festival’s Story Stage, a celebration of the community highlighting stories, songs, and foodways traditions.

Anna and John formed a new band project in 2020, Swift Silver, and just released their self-titled album in June 2021.  Three songs from that album were recently featured on Season 5 (2022) on John T. Edge’s show True South on the SEC Network alongside Kentuckians SG Goodman and The Local Honeys.

She also has a co-writing credit on The Local Honeys’ latest self-titled release (2022), “Last Mule in the Holler.”

Anna’s work with IBMA continues to build on her experience in the music industry and culture and heritage training. As Business Development Director, she oversees sponsorship and programming and helps coordinate IBMA’s yearly industry conference and street festival, World of Bluegrass.