The Annies are an acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitar

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

 and vocal children's music

Children's music

Children's music is used here to refer to music composed and performed for children by adults. In European influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment...

 and puppet

Puppet

A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....

 performance duo from Putney

Putney

Putney is a district in south-west London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....

, Vermont

Vermont

Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

 made up of Annie Frelich and Annie Quest. Their live shows are characterized by the interaction between original music, stories, and a number of puppet characters that the Annies operate. The Annies perform for birthday

Birthday

A birthday is a day or anniversary where a person celebrates his or her date of birth. Birthdays are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with a gift, party or rite of passage. Although the major religions celebrate the birth of their founders , Christmas – which is celebrated widely by...

 parties, kid’s workshops (for puppet-making and song writing), or for teacher curriculum

Curriculum

See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...

 development focusing on expanding creativity

Creativity

Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...

 in the classroom

Classroom

A classroom is a room in which teaching or learning activities can take place. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, including public and private schools, corporations, and religious and humanitarian organizations...

.

Annie Frelich and Katie Bowen, a violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist also perform a side project called The FITtles aimed at educating children about nutrition, health, positive body image

Body image

Body image refers to a person's perception of the aesthetics and sexual attractiveness of their own body. The phrase body image was first coined by the Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst Paul Schilder in his masterpiece The Image and Appearance of the Human Body...

, strength, and flexibility

Flexibility (anatomy)

Flexibility or limberness refers to the absolute range of movement in a joint or series of joints, and length in muscles that cross the joints. Flexibility is variable between individuals, particularly in terms of differences in muscle length of multi-joint muscles...

.

Annies songs

The Annies songs are performed with both Annie Quest and Annie Frelich singing in harmony while playing acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitar

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

. The lyrics are characterized by their focus on imagination

Imagination

Imagination, also called the faculty of imagining, is the ability of forming mental images, sensations and concepts, in a moment when they are not perceived through sight, hearing or other senses...

, children’s artwork

Work of art

A work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...

 and creativity

Creativity

Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...

, humor, and a love of nature

Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...

 and exploration

Exploration

Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...

. The songs contain a number of pun

Pun

The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...

s and some difficult scientific words that children enjoy pronouncing, like orthoptera

Orthoptera

Orthoptera is an order of insects with paurometabolous or incomplete metamorphosis, including the grasshoppers, crickets and locusts.Many insects in this order produce sound by rubbing their wings against each other or their legs, the wings or legs containing rows of corrugated bumps...

 and hibernaculum.

Annies puppets

The Annies puppet characters have varied personalities and sizes. Their construction

Construction

In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...

 and use of everyday materials encourages the children in the audience

Audience

An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...

 to make their own puppets put on shows of their own. Some characters include:

• Toadillia
• Latka
• Louie The Louse
• Lady Jane
• Carlsbad Cactus
• The Legendary Orange Haired Gazig

Crazy Stew

The Annies have released one studio album named Crazy Stew, produced in 2007. While live performances contain only the two Annies voices and acoustic guitars, the album contains collaborations with double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

, hand drums, bassoon

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...

, string instruments, and others.

The track listing includes:

1. Crazy Stew
2. The Insectabet
3. It’s Toadally Fantabulous (To Be A Toad)
4. Beats In The Field, Birds In The Air
5. Babies In My Garden
6. The Ballad Of The Weird Pirate
7. Growin’ Up
8. I Believe In Magic I Believe In Dragons
9. I Am The Artist
10. The Under The Sea Carousel
11. The Snorchestra
12. Puppets For The People

I Am The Arrrtist – Live and Unhinged

I Am The Arrrtist - Live and Unhinged is a DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 created from a live show given at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center

Brattleboro Museum and Art Center

Brattleboro Museum and Art Center non-collecting museum was founded in 1972 and is housed in a historic train station in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont. New exhibits by regional and international artists are shown each season. The aim of BMAC is to present art and ideas in ways that inspire,...

in 2005. The DVD was produced by Vermont Digital Productions.