OH SUSANNA – NAMEDROPPER

2014 – Sonic Unyon Records
I can’t remember the last time I wrote a review of an album that I had actually purchased, although it is probably years rather than months! It is impossible to even listen to every album I get sent so reviews have to be carefully selected. This is all leading up to the fact that I spent my own hard earned on this new ‘Oh Susanna’ recording which should explain the esteem in which I hold this hugely talented Canadian folksy country singer songwriters new album!
Suzie Ungerleider, for that is her real name, has been making albums since the late 1990s with this being her sixth full ‘long player’ following on from her debut e.p. Each of those albums is essential listening for anyone who loves beautifully constructed songs and just about the most gorgeous, feminine vocals around. There is not only beauty in Suzie’s voice but also a talent for perfectly expressing the lyrical content of each of her songs, sometimes a lovely tender vulnerability, at others a deep underlying strength. I’ve often wondered how she would manage an album of other people’s songs. I need wonder no longer because ‘Namedropper’ is Suzie’s ‘covers album!’ So how did she do? The answer is, quite brilliantly! Not only can she give life to her own compositions but she is just as adept as an interpreter of other writers work as she is her
Fairly obviously she doesn’t have a Texas twang but vocally she often reminds me of a young Nanci Griffith with that lovely feminine lilt and like Nanci she is able to exercise strength and no little power making her pretty much a vocalist who can sing anything, as she proves on this album that is on pretty much constant rotation in my house. I’m always going on about loving music that is ‘eerie’ or ‘edgy’ and whilst this album is a long way from being raw hillbilly music the added bonus (not that a bonus is necessary) is that there is an occasional eeriness and Suzie has always played music that has something of an edgy gritty atmosphere, i.e. with a complete lack of sugary tweeness!
All songs on this album were written by Canadian musicians, some better known on these shores than others, but all hugely talented artists such as Jim Bryson, who also produced the album, Ron Sexsmith, Luke Doucet and Old man Luedecke amongst a number of others. What is even more remarkable is the fact that every song was written specifically for this project, having never been previously recorded. Jim Bryson deserves huge credit for his production. Although the concept was at his instigation it must be incredibly difficult to take fourteen songs, each with a different writer and often entirely different stylistically and turn it into a fully formed album with a nice flow, almost as if there was only one writer.
On Into My Arms there is a lovely chiming guitar intro with Suzie’s vocal being both beautiful and punchy, somewhere between Nanci and Sheryl Crow on an excellent mid tempo song written by Joel Plaskett. Cottonwood is a song that has a slightly eerie feel thanks in the main to the virtually angelic harmonies, with keyboards emphasizing the haunting ethereal nature of the song. Melissa McClelland’s Mozart For The Cat is propelled by an excellent heavy bass sound with Suzie’s vocal taking on a more powerful punchy nature on a song with a slightly unusual instrumentation and arrangement, but again, one that is hugely appealing. Jay Harris’s 1955 goes a little beyond folk and country into something that has some of those elements but often diverges into more of a 1950s rock ‘n’ roll feel, again with a slightly unusual tempo and arrangement but a track that overall is quite addictive in it’s repetitive nature. Finally, This Guy has a lovely acoustic guitar led folk arrangement on a beautiful song, penned by ‘The Good Lovelies,’ with Suzie’s lovely vocals having a floaty, almost ethereal feel. They are soon joined by a nice twangy electric guitar and piano on a song that is easy to imagine as a late night show closer.
This is a tremendous album that in part because of the number of writers has huge variety in terms of tempos as well as thematically. Nothing actually rocks but that is never the point with this beauty of a recording. The songs are all excellent and of course Suzie’s lovely vocals would be worth listening to even if she was singing the phone book!
http://www.ohsusannamusic.com/
I can’t remember the last time I wrote a review of an album that I had actually purchased, although it is probably years rather than months! It is impossible to even listen to every album I get sent so reviews have to be carefully selected. This is all leading up to the fact that I spent my own hard earned on this new ‘Oh Susanna’ recording which should explain the esteem in which I hold this hugely talented Canadian folksy country singer songwriters new album!
Suzie Ungerleider, for that is her real name, has been making albums since the late 1990s with this being her sixth full ‘long player’ following on from her debut e.p. Each of those albums is essential listening for anyone who loves beautifully constructed songs and just about the most gorgeous, feminine vocals around. There is not only beauty in Suzie’s voice but also a talent for perfectly expressing the lyrical content of each of her songs, sometimes a lovely tender vulnerability, at others a deep underlying strength. I’ve often wondered how she would manage an album of other people’s songs. I need wonder no longer because ‘Namedropper’ is Suzie’s ‘covers album!’ So how did she do? The answer is, quite brilliantly! Not only can she give life to her own compositions but she is just as adept as an interpreter of other writers work as she is her
Fairly obviously she doesn’t have a Texas twang but vocally she often reminds me of a young Nanci Griffith with that lovely feminine lilt and like Nanci she is able to exercise strength and no little power making her pretty much a vocalist who can sing anything, as she proves on this album that is on pretty much constant rotation in my house. I’m always going on about loving music that is ‘eerie’ or ‘edgy’ and whilst this album is a long way from being raw hillbilly music the added bonus (not that a bonus is necessary) is that there is an occasional eeriness and Suzie has always played music that has something of an edgy gritty atmosphere, i.e. with a complete lack of sugary tweeness!
All songs on this album were written by Canadian musicians, some better known on these shores than others, but all hugely talented artists such as Jim Bryson, who also produced the album, Ron Sexsmith, Luke Doucet and Old man Luedecke amongst a number of others. What is even more remarkable is the fact that every song was written specifically for this project, having never been previously recorded. Jim Bryson deserves huge credit for his production. Although the concept was at his instigation it must be incredibly difficult to take fourteen songs, each with a different writer and often entirely different stylistically and turn it into a fully formed album with a nice flow, almost as if there was only one writer.
On Into My Arms there is a lovely chiming guitar intro with Suzie’s vocal being both beautiful and punchy, somewhere between Nanci and Sheryl Crow on an excellent mid tempo song written by Joel Plaskett. Cottonwood is a song that has a slightly eerie feel thanks in the main to the virtually angelic harmonies, with keyboards emphasizing the haunting ethereal nature of the song. Melissa McClelland’s Mozart For The Cat is propelled by an excellent heavy bass sound with Suzie’s vocal taking on a more powerful punchy nature on a song with a slightly unusual instrumentation and arrangement, but again, one that is hugely appealing. Jay Harris’s 1955 goes a little beyond folk and country into something that has some of those elements but often diverges into more of a 1950s rock ‘n’ roll feel, again with a slightly unusual tempo and arrangement but a track that overall is quite addictive in it’s repetitive nature. Finally, This Guy has a lovely acoustic guitar led folk arrangement on a beautiful song, penned by ‘The Good Lovelies,’ with Suzie’s lovely vocals having a floaty, almost ethereal feel. They are soon joined by a nice twangy electric guitar and piano on a song that is easy to imagine as a late night show closer.
This is a tremendous album that in part because of the number of writers has huge variety in terms of tempos as well as thematically. Nothing actually rocks but that is never the point with this beauty of a recording. The songs are all excellent and of course Suzie’s lovely vocals would be worth listening to even if she was singing the phone book!
http://www.ohsusannamusic.com/