Oh Susanna – Maverick

MAVERICK

Oh Susanna
SOON THE BIRDS
Continental Records CSCCD 1074

Dreamy and heart-punchingly beautiful Let’s start with the last first. Title track and finale to a wonderful album, Soon The Birds is an exquisite narrative of such extraordinary beauty it should be compulsory listening for every music lover in the whole damn world. Suzie Ungerleider aka Oh Susanna has a voice that could bring tears to a glass eye and she uses it to its full potential throughout this; her latest album. SOON THE BIRDS far surpasses her previous offerings and So Long and the weep fest, See What Promises Can Bring, are both so staggeringly beautiful that each hearing unfolds another hidden layer of quality songwriting. Your Town is more lo-fi than folk and has echoes of early Cowboy Junkies as Suzie tells the tale of a man’s broken life and dreams. An oft used song title in country music is Long Black Train but this one is a pearl. Suzie takes on the mantle of a pilot’s young widow’s and recounts the day: ‘when I saw the officers coming…I knew you were gone…then I saw nothing but a long black train.’

Although heartbreaking, the song is never over sentimental even when a twist is introduced 2/3 of the way through. What Old Friends Do has an ethereal feel toit as Suzie’s voice intermingles with a guitar; banjo and some delightfully lightly brushed drums in the background. My favourite song on the album is Pretty Blue Eyes which could just be the song that lifts Oh Susanna up into the higher echelons of the Roots-Americana pantheon.

Oh Susanna is meant to be the alter-ego of Suzie Ungerleider but actually
appears to be a collaboration of roots artists from across Canada who all help create Oh Susanna’s timeless sound and as Suzie herself points out in the sleevenotes; the album’s: ‘rich, layered sound’ is all down to producer David Travers-Smith SOON THE BIRDS is the sound of a young woman finally becoming comfortable with her extraordinary talents.

Alan Harrison