From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V11 #42 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Saturday, April 7 2007 Volume 11 : Number 042 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- Re: Great article in the Daily Iowan! ["PhotoTwang" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 05:31:47 -0500 From: "PhotoTwang" Subject: Re: Great article in the Daily Iowan! Thanks Tracy. Here is that Daily Iowan piece (I thought it a bit amuzing that the Daily Iowan calls Iowa-native Suze a "Chicago native") : >> Approaching God from the left By: Anna Wiegenstein - The Daily Iowan Posted: 4/5/07 Susan Werner is vocal about the ways being a churchgoer has affected her. In fact, the Chicago native just wrote an album about it. The catch, well: Question: "Do you believe in God?" Answer: "I'm not really sure. I'm not entirely sold." Yeah. Listening to Werner's seventh album, The Gospel Truth, one quickly finds out that she can barely stop talking about American religion, though the lyrics may not be as traditional as one might expect from an Iowa-bred girl raised Catholic. "Deliver us from the creepy preachers / With their narrow minds and very wide lapels," Werner sings in "Our Father (The New, Revised Edition)." "I'm very interested in how human beings reveal themselves through church music," the throaty-voiced musician said. "If I didn't care about the church, I wouldn't have done this project." Werner's dedication to The Gospel Truth is indeed genuine - during the writing and recording process, she visited around 20 churches, absorbing the atmosphere. From a Mormon service in Nevada to a service in Tennessee led by the Rev. Al Green, the singer was keenly aware of the roles music plays in preaching. "We're in a cubicle from Monday to Friday, sweating it our for ourselves, and there's an isolation that's relieved on Sunday morning," she said, emphasizing that church attendance fills a specific void in the "iPod age." Instead of being isolated within "little islands of music," the music of the church is a communal experience. "I wanted to feel what it was like to just sit in the pews and see what came up," she said. The results, she continued, were all over the board: "Wow, this makes me feel joyful! Wow, this makes me feel excluded and damned! I wanted to get all of that." It makes sense, then, that iTunes calls The Gospel Truth "Unclassifiable." Hearing this news, Werner breaks into a strident cackle. She ultimately labels it "gospel from the left," in which, as opposed to its counterpart, "no one's sure of how things are going to come out." "Good people, in their hearts, can hold faith and doubt side by side," Werner said. The genre-bending nature of her latest work, which takes influences from rootsy blues music and from hymns, actually led to a breakup between her and her longtime manager, who questioned, "Who's going to want to buy this?" Well, as the turnout to recent shows can attest, quite a few people do. Werner said her longtime fans continue to come to shows but are now bringing new people, specifically to hear the humanist, non-dogmatic approach of The Gospel Truth. "Something's at risk when I go onstage to sing these songs," she said. "Anyone can sing love songs...probably better than I can. But there's a feeling of 'I'm glad you're saying that.' " Additionally, she has noticed one interesting phenomenon at her performances of late - the request, upon buying an album, to dedicate it to the fan's spiritual leader. "The pastors are boosting my business by a third," she said and laughed. Though Werner is clearly not through with her soul-searching, both in public and private, her next project - writing songs for a musical - is challenging her artistry as well. "It's interesting to be writing songs that don't need me at all to be successful," she said. "It's like saying 'you built a good house. Now, someone else can live in it.' " This spirit of inventiveness seems to be one key to Werner's personality - and one which she says is greatly influenced by her time spent at the UI earning a degree in voice. "You get to try out every idea and identity you want," she said. "I love what Iowa City brings to the state." Though she returns to the area frequently, both to perform and to visit friends, she did have one question - are there still petitioners of every creed on the Pentacrest? When hearing an answer in the affirmative, her grin is nearly audible on the phone line. "Long live the preachers on the Pentacrest," she exclaimed. "They want to save you, and who knows? Maybe you'll get saved after all. You're in college, hell. Try it out." E-mail DI reporter Anna Wiegenstein at: anna-wiegenstein@uiowa.edu http://www.dailyiowan.com/ << ~Richard HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 22:09:12 -0500 From: Kellie Subject: congregate/protest hey all - did you get a chance to look at the new forum on susan's website? there are some interesting conversations going on there. ;) http://www.susanwerner.com/pforums/index.php kellie lin p.s. madison, wi area susan w. fans - she'll be at the wilmar center tomorrow night at 8 pm. i might guest with backing vox on a few tunes. come and say hi! www.madfolk.org HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ End of believers-digest V11 #42 ******************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------- This has been a posting from the Susan Werner believers-digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe believers-digest" in the body of the message