Singer-songwriter to pursue career in L.A.

When auburn-haired Annie Boxell sings "New Shade of Blue," you have flashes of a young Carole King. Boxell's tone and lyrics, "I want you to turn around and look me in the soul/There's a woman inside I want you to get to know," exude an edge of sweet desperation.

Although the singer, composer and lyricist has become known for her gigs at Atlanticville on Sullivan's Island and performances at Iacofano's Italian Bistro and Bar in Mount Pleasant, she also lights up visual arts circles as director of the John Carroll Doyle Gallery, where her exuberance has been a magnet for customers.

Lured to the College of Charleston 15 years ago on a volleyball scholarship, the Salt Lake City native will leave this week to pursue her dream as a singer-songwriter in Los Angeles.

Chances are, you may have seen Boxell as she tended bar at Club Tango or the Indigo Lounge after she left college.

"At college, I wasn't a music major because I was embarrassed that I never learned to read music," she confesses over crab cakes at Blossom. "Although I didn't graduate, I majored in studio art because I liked to sketch, and also thought I might get a day job managing a gallery, while playing and singing at night."

By age 5, she had started playing the piano by ear.

"I took a couple of piano lessons, but decided I wanted to hear the music in my head and then pick it out on the piano," explains Boxell.

One of four children, she went with her parents each Christmas as they sang carols in the neighborhood and for churches.

"We were called The Singing Boxells, and since we didn't have much money, this was our gift to the neighbors and churches," she says. "But I always wanted to sing."

It took John Carroll Doyle to give her the confidence to make the transition from bartender to entertainer. While working at a graphic art company, Boxell often delivered business cards to clients, one of whom was Doyle. "In 1996, Annie Boxell waltzed into my life as a courier," he recalls. "And, as we became friends, I invited her to be a figure model for my paintings and books."

The artist, who later hired Boxell to work in his gallery, adds, "In her nearly three years as my gallery director, Annie's supercharged energy was the driving force that kept my gallery alive during the recent struggling economy."

Doyle encouraged Boxell to pursue music. "John insisted that I audition at various clubs and restaurants," says Boxell, who then purchased a portable keyboard and P.A. system.

She also said she was fortunate to meet drummer Jeff Mangan and guitarist Jim Algar, who are on Boxell's first CD, "See the Light," with Annie Boxell and the Vicious Circle.

Another confidence-builder was performing solo at Charleston Chops each weekend for a year until it closed in 2000.

Overall, her day job and evening gigs were going well. But last February, the day after her 35th birthday, Boxell made a life-changing decision. "I had just gone with my father, who teaches theater at Salt Lake Community College, to the Sundance Film Festival, where I met the owner of a reputable production agency in L.A., which I would rather not name, in case things don't work out. But I gave the owner a demo tape of my music and a copy of the screenplay I wrote, based on John Doyle's autobiography, 'Charleston Rhapsody.' He liked them both."

Last spring, Boxell and her father visited one of her brothers near San Diego and then drove to Los Angeles to check out apartments she had found on the Internet.

One evening they went to The Roxy, a legendary club on Sunset Boulevard, where she met Jennifer Quiroz, a young singer she discovered on the Internet and had shared e-mails with concerning L.A.'s music opportunities.

Through Quirox, she learned of the NOHO Music Festival in North Hollywood. "That's where Jennifer was first heard, and then invited to The Roxy," explains Boxell, who hopes to sing there as well as in open-mike spots such as Kulak's Woodshed.

So this week, a discernible absence will be felt in the local music and visual arts scene, as Boxell packs her keyboard, CDs and 15 years of memories into her 2003 Hyundai Santa Fe and, with Finny her faithful Shih Tzu, heads out to the City of Angels to test her artistic mettle.