Here are a couple of shots of Suzy Bogguss performing at Charleston, Utah last Saturday night. It was a delightful evening. Scott and MaryAnn came with me and commented that they enjoyed it and even liked Suzy's singing! I wasn't really surprised. Suzy is one of the most easy to listen to singers I know of (and I know of quite a few!). I came to know Suzy's music much the same way as I came to know Nancy Hanson's. Thank you Orem public library! Right after I bought my car cd player I became restless musically and started branching out to different stuff than the oldies rock from the 50's and 60's I'd enjoyed most of my life. The local oldies radio station also booted me in the rear by cutting way back on 50's music and adding 70's music. Who on earth considers 70's oldies? Anyway, I started exploring country, bluegrass and folk music and in doing so stumbled upon a country tribute to the Eagles that had a cut of Suzy singing "Take It To the Limit". Hardly my favorite Eagles tune but I was mezmerized by her voice. Such purity and clarity of tone. As a bonus the picture of her in the liner notes was pretty darn cute! After hearing that I went back to the library and checked out everything of hers I could find. Since then I've built up quite a personal collection of her stuff. I found it interesting that she and Kathy Mattea are best friends and both are friends with Alison Krauss. I guess it's that birds of a feather thing. I picked up her latest release, "Sweet Danger" at the concert and had her sign it. It and the previous album are not at all country but it was apparent that she is still a draw among the country crowd as evidenced by the location ("horse barn") and make up of the folks at the concert last week. She played to the crowd, doing mainly a greatest hits collection of her old country songs. The only number from the new cd was her cover of chicago's "If You Leave Me Now" which by the way, is really beautiful. I was impressed with her guitar playing. That song required a variety of difficult chords that she played with ease. I'd never seen her self-accompany before and was duly impressed. She had husband Doug Crider play mandolin on "Night Rider's Lament" and sing harmony. For the finale they invited the opening act Richard Lee Cody & Mary Kay to come out and sing "Red River Valley" as a sing along with the audience. Those are the people in the last photo. I'm quite impressed with Richard Lee Cody. He sings cowboy music and his voice has an uncanny similarity to Marty Robbins'. So there you have Suzy Bogguss. A most worthy member of my top 10! Next up Lori McKenna (whenever I get around to it).
