Preview
OH SUSANNA
Saturday, November 29
Liberty Lounge
The critics may be falling over themselves trying to slot singer-songwriter Oh Susanna into the correct space in the musical card catalogue, but the lady herself sounds mellow as she answers the phone in the basement of her newly purchased Toronto house.
A quick flip through her latest press package reveals music writers’ collective need for group therapy. Comparisons to Dolly Parton collide with torches raised to Sinead O’Connor, Bob Dylan references rub cheeks with Gillian Welch and Crazy Horse gallops through and nearly runs over Neko Case and Tori Amos. Then, standing so far out in left field that she’s in the parking lot, is the shadow of Shania Twain. Yes, a British critic actually compared our Suzy (nee Ungerleider), she of the authentic voice and grounded performances, to CanCon’s bastard video-vixen daughter.
And don’t even get started on the labels. Depending on the source, Suzy’s third and self-titled album is rock, not rock, country, not country, roots, straight-forward folk, and has a hint of R and B.
"I take these things with a grain of salt," she says of the Shania Twain reference. "It’s true that people in Britain or the press there have characterized this album as being country and I kind of know what they mean, but I just think ‘Oh, it’s some strange British thing, that’s why they’re saying that.’ I just go ‘Whatever!’
"(But) it is funny to read something and go, someone said something about pedal steel guitar and I don’t think there’s pedal steel on there!" The singer believes that trying to describe music is trying to describe something that’s best heard. And Suzy’s music, from her intoxicatingly dark 1999 epic Johnstown to the dreamy sounds of follow-up Sleepy Little Sailor to the 12 new tracks on her new self-titled album, is worth hearing. Her solo show at the Engineered Air Theatre in Calgary four years back was captivating in its intensity.
"I remember being up there and I hadn’t played very many theatres. The bars can suck because people are talking but when you have that silence, you think ‘I’d better be good because there’s nothing else to see.’"
And while Suzy is actually flattered by the reference to Shania Twain ("I’m kind of a sucker for her") she recognizes the difference between Twain playing up the schlocky aspects and her own shows in which the audience is drawn to her as a person, not as someone playing a role.
"Part of it is a performance, but it’s trying to get something that has some more authenticity," she says. "I do wear masks with different characters that are in the song. I think about Neil Young where he’s giving a performance – it’s less about creating an illusion to try to fool people (and) it’s more like creating an illusion to help people get to the heart of where they are or where you are. Using drama to tell the truth."
One truth about her life that she is a little shy about telling is her month-old marriage to Cam Giroux, drummer for Weeping Tile and Luther Wright and the Wrongs. "It’s kind of like being a teenager with my parents, you know, where you don’t talk to them about your boyfriend," she says. "I get very secretive about that stuff, I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s a strange thing to be broadcasting to strangers. You want to keep it sacred."
Giroux will be travelling with Suzy and playing in her band, which includes musical luminaries like long-time musical partner Bazil Donovan (Blue Rodeo) and new addition Travis Good (The Sadies). You might think that someone like Suzy would meet a musician of Good’s caliber while hanging out backstage somewhere, but, in fact, they met when she was enlisted to help move Bob Egan, lap-steel player for Blue Rodeo and Wilco. She and Good commiserated over moving what is described as the most ugly couch ever. It was Donovan’s idea to take Good on-board as another guitar player, and right away Suzy loved the Keith Richards-Mick Taylor aspect of having more than one guitarist.
"This album, I really didn’t want it to be a situation where there’s studio guys who fill in the background music," she says. "The thing that excites me is the personalities and how that comes through. That’s what I find really fascinating like the bands that were my heroes: The Stones, Beatles, The Who, Led Zep. The way that they play their instruments said so much about their character."
As for the character of her new husband, Suzy admits she was apprehensive in April when they first began to work together professionally. "When you know someone and you have this intimate thing, it’s sometimes hard to not unload all your crap on each other or be impatient. (But) it’s better than before when we were both on the road never seeing each other." |
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