Ann Savoy (/sɑːˈvwɑː/ sah-VWAH; née Allen; born January 20, 1952)[1][2] is a musician, author, and record producer.
Savoy was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in Richmond, Virginia.[2] She resides with her husband Marc Savoy and family in Eunice, Southern Louisiana.[3]
As a musician, she performs with her husband accordionist Marc Savoy and fiddler Michael Doucet in the Savoy Doucet Cajun Band. She also has an all-woman band The Magnolia Sisters. She also performs with husband Marc and their sons, Joel and Wilson, in the Savoy Family Band. Most recently, she has put together a Django Reinhardt-style swing band called Ann Savoy and her Sleepless Knights.[3]
Savoy appeared as a musician in the film Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and was the associate music director of the film All The King's Men, working on this project with T Bone Burnett. She has appeared in many documentaries on the subject of Cajun music including a Les Blank film, entitled Marc and Ann.[citation needed]
As a record producer she produced, among others, the Grammy Award nominated tribute to Cajun music, Evangeline Made: A Tribute to Cajun Music, featuring singers Linda Ronstadt, John Fogerty, Nick Lowe, herself, and other noted musicians.[3]
She is the editor and compiler of Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People, which chronicles the history of Cajun and Zydeco music. Volume one was published in 1984,[4] and volume two was released in 2021.[5] Savoy had put the project on hold while she raised four children and pursued a music career, but the downtime forced by the COVID-19 pandemic plus the encouragement of her grown children allowed her to complete volume two in 2020.[6] Volume one garnered the American Folklore Society's Botkin Book Award, and the documentary film J'etais au bal was based in part on the book.[7]
She has recorded a number of albums. As The Zozo Sisters, she recorded with Linda Ronstadt the Grammy Award-nominated and Billboard-charting CD Adieu False Heart. That album is notable for being Savoy's first time recording in English.[8]