An evening with Suzy Bogguss

Last April I started doing a weekly livestream on my Facebook page called Wine Down Wednesdaywhere I sing a few songs and answer questions. It began as a way to stay in touch with my fansand keep my chops up. Little did I know the connection would become such a comfort to me. I’veeven had a few of my closest friends like Terri Clark, Pam Tillis, Kathy Mattea, Carlene Carter andJeff Hanna as guests. Turns out you can still harmonize six feet apart! Next week I’m celebratingone year of the show and there’s no sign of it slowing down!My husband Doug is a recording engineer and we have a small home studio. I had a fresh batch ofsongs, and since we couldn’t travel, it seemed like a good time to start working on some newmusic. At first, I was playing all the instruments. Then we brought in our multi-instrumentalistfriend, Chris Scruggs. Eventually we managed to get a full band into the house with everyonemasked up and recording in different rooms. To help finance the project, I started my ownsubscription service called Suzy’s Inner Circle. Members love getting behind the scenes video ofmy whole creative process. They get to hear the new songs first, and I post rare videos clipsfrom my personal archives. I also give occasional mini-concerts, and I even do some Zoom calls!I can’t wait for live shows to start up again – I need the rest!”––––––––––––This all might seem like enough to keep me busy, but I guess not because I’m also working on asoup cookbook! It’s based around an annual party and jam I throw for my musician friends, calledSuzy’s Soup Night. (I love to cook and soups are kind of my specialty.) The book will have about 50recipes with beautiful photos of the soups, along with pictures from my parties. I’m about halfwaydone with the recipes and I’m looking for a publisher.“When the wheels came off for Covid I thought I’d be slowing down… but that hasn’t happened!So yes, you can call her a country singer if you want, but really that’s just the beginning.During the creative explosion that was country music in the 1990s Suzy Bogguss sold 4million records with sparkling radio hits like “Outbound Plane”, “Someday Soon”,“Letting Go”, “Drive South”, and “Hey Cinderella”. But you can’t peg Suzy that easilIn the midst of her country popularity she took time off to make a duets album with thelegendary Chet Atkins. In 2003 she made an album of modern swing music with Ray Bensonof Asleep At The Wheel. An album of original music in 2007 landed her at number 4 on thejazz charts. Her folk music roots show through in her frequent appearances on public radio’sA Prairie Home Companion, in the Grammy she earned for her work on Beautiful Dreamer:The Songs of Stephen Foster, and in her critically acclaimed album and book project from2011, American Folk Songbook. In 2014 she released Lucky, a collection of songs written byMerle Haggard and interpreted through Suzy’s crystal vocals from the female point of view.Her latest offering, Aces Redux, is a re-recording of her platinum selling album Acesproduced by Suzy with fresh arrangements and her signature sparkling vocals. She continuesto tour the world, both on her own and with fellow country radio divas Terri Clark and PamTills as “Chicks With Hits” and in 2022, she will tour with her longtime friend Kathy Mattea.
So yes, you can call her a country singer if you want, but really that’s just the beginning.