Canadian AV (Ann Vriend) is a two-time Maple Blues Award songwriting recipient, an Edmonton Music Award and Alberta Centennial Award recipient, a "keyboardist of the year" nominee at at Maple Blues Awards, and has sold more than 30,000 albums off-the-stage in her under-the-radar yet critically acclaimed international career. She is also the bandleader, lead singer, and arranger for the newly formed soul/roots group AV & the Inner City, who just won an Emerging Artist" award at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, at the end of a highly successful multi festival summer tour. AV has been hailed by NOW Magazine as a musician who "turns soul on its head, belting out delicate introspection in the form of fire”. Known primarily for her incredibly powerful and dynamic vocals she is actually first and foremost a songwriter, and her many awards spanning her career are almost exclusively in that category. AV is also one of the only independent artists in recent history to break into the Top 100 Pop Charts of commercial radio in Germany, the world’s 4th largest music market; even taking the #1 spot on one of their largest stations, Bayern 1. To quote the Toronto Star: "Don't miss her."