savannah welch

“Gratitude is my painkiller, and what I am most grateful for is community. As Ram Dass says, ‘We are all just walking each other home.’”

Savannah Welch may be the only Austin artist who literally began her music career — or at least sang in public for the first time — at a SIMS fundraiser. The occasion was 2005’s “Chip Off the Old Block” concert spotlighting songwriters and their music-playing children. When she got onstage to sing with her father and brother, Kevin and Dustin Welch, all three of them were surprised; after all, she was the Welch kid who grew up surrounded by songwriting royalty but decided that her calling was acting, not music. But upon moving from Nashville to Austin 16 years ago, she discovered she could embrace both.

Since then, Savannah has appeared in films ranging from independent shorts to The Tree of Life and Boyhood. She has also has toured and recorded two albums as part of the all-girl Americana band The Trishas, an experience of sisterhood and empowerment that, along with SIMS, was timely on her journey of recovery from addiction to the state of emotional fortitude that now defines her. That was proven in the wake of a 2016 freak accident that cost Savannah her right leg. Less than a year later, Savannah bounded back with a multi-episode role on TV’s SEAL Team Six drama, SIX. She’s now preparing a solo album, directing music videos & short films, and working as a certified Birth Doula and Parent Educator — all while proudly raising a young son of her own. In the Fall of 2018, Savannah appeared on the cover of Texas Music magazine: an inspiring portrait of a grateful survivor living life to its fullest — and determined to give back in kind.