Suzy Bogguss, that's who. If you are only a very casual country fan, you had to be paying attention circa 1992 to know her music. I fell in love with it around that time (round about when I was graduating high school). She's been a favorite since, but she's been missing for a while. Last year, I stumbled on her website and, long story short, preordered her newest CD. It came autographed by the artist, which I sheepishly admit was kind of a kick for me.
I've always sort of felt that Suzy was a guilty pleasure, an attitude no doubt born of the sense that anything I was a fan of at age 18 must, necessarily, be discreditable to my wiser, 33-year old self. Somehow, her sonorous alto has always been both settling and enthralling to me, from Letting Go and Diamonds and Tears, Just Like the Weather, to Outbound Plane... Her cover of "Take it to the Limit" is better than the Eagles. Heck, Drive South was so entrenched as a favorite it managed not only to turn me on to John Hiatt but also to lay what now must be thought as early framework for moving an Iowa boy to Tennessee. Simpatico was a brilliant album.
It turns out, there's no need for the pleasure to have been guilty. Thanks to the good folks at Wikipedia, where the story can now be told, and I think I like her music even more. First, she's from my neck of the woods (roughly), which is cool to start with. While I always secretly worried her good looks betrayed a secret story of being just a creation of some Nashville boardroom, I was moved to see her "breakthrough" in 1991-1993 was preceded by a decade of dues-paying. She appears to have been let down, not propped up, by the cool kids on Music Row. And while she (sensibly) took some years to raise a family, she has since resurrected her career as a music artist.
Suzy is now so Web 2.0! She now has a passable web page, an aptly named blog: "Blogguss," a series of YouTube videos on the making of her newest album, you name it. I happily endure the bacn emails from her people. And the results of the album preorder I was happy to make are pictured above. Last spring, she posted one track "Even If" from the new album free to download, DRM-free on the site.
When I downloaded the track, I admit I wasn't quite as excited as I am now. In fact, for about a month, I forgot it was on my iPod (wish the track had been labelled with artist name automatically). But when I figured it out and fixed the name label, I started remembering why I love Suzy's music. "Even if that were true" has a seemingly typical, even stereotypical theme: a woman confessing to her affair she knows the relationship is doomed. The melody is simple and the instruments subtle with a touch of Western twang. Maybe the fourth or the fifth time it came up on shuffle, it clicked with me. I don't identify with the situation described, but the song is perfect anyway.
When I go the album on Wednesday, I gave it a spin. It is varied, but well-produced. It is not boring or cookie-cutter. "In Heaven", the first single, is that song that will build the cult following, and probably move more than a few people who identify with its theme to tears. "Chain lover" is a gutsy song for a female artist to put out there for sure. "Everything" has a sense of humor. But it's songs like "Even If" and "Its not gonna happen today" that remind me to love this. Suzy's sad and easy voice is the warm rub of Novocaine to the emotions before the stabbing heartbreak. Just wonderful. Way to go, Ms. Bogguss.
Usually, one feels rather trapped by the thought that some of the best music is controlled by big corporations that sue, and otherwise treat as criminals, music fans. The same corporations certainly aren't out for the artists, but to prop up their failing business model against the unturnable current of technological change. To discover the voice of an old friend doing music the way I hope the market will start doing music, and to support it and appreciate it, is that not joy?
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