BIO

Samantha Grimes is a Minnesota-born, Wisconsin-based singer-songwriter whose swampy Americana sits at the crossroads of folk, blues, country, and indie rock. She writes lean, lyric-first songs and performs them left-handed and upside-down on acoustic guitar — a style that started as an accident and became the spine of her live sound. 

Raised in Forest Lake as the daughter of a DJ, she started playing young on classic-rock records and has spent more than two decades writing original music. After an early self-released album in the mid-2000s, she rebuilt her career from the Midwest circuit: bars, churches, festivals, songwriter rounds, and rooms that reward a voice and a story more than a production budget. Her catalog includes top 40 radio single Wendy Darling, Wicked Mortals, Sovereign Woman, the 2025 album Stripped, and the 2026 single 20 Odd Years. She’s supported Charlie Parr, Eli Young Band, and Davina & The Vagabonds.

The last few years have been the ones that put the work on bigger stages.

In 2024 she was named Gold Entertainer of the Year by the International Singer-Songwriter Association and Maverick of the Year by the Midwest Country Music Organization. She is also a member of the Midwest All Music Hall of Fame. 

In November 2025 she won the Josie Music Award for Americana Artist of the Year – Folk Female at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville — an independent awards program that draws over 100,000 annual submissions. Stripped, produced by J. Christopher Vaught, was also submitted for Grammy consideration. 

In early 2026 the World Entertainment Awards recognized her with Best Female Artist, Best Composer, Best Folk Album (Stripped), and Best Folk Song (The Things You’re Not). She has kept touring the Upper Midwest while releasing new singles, including Flower on the Wall, Stoner, and 20 Odd Years. She is also now a voting member of the Recording Academy inducted in the class of 2026.

What hasn’t changed is the frame: original songs, a guitar strung the “wrong” way, and a confessional midwest voice that has earned her the moniker Americana “Queen of the North”.  She is joined in full-band formation with notable performers in the midwest music scene including Nancy Long of JoJo Green, Charlie Milkey of The Dweebs and Church of Cash, and others.