From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V11 #52 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Sunday, May 6 2007 Volume 11 : Number 052 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- I'm somewhat confused [Jean Rossner ] SW in Nashville 4.19.07 ["Tracy J. Wells" ] Re: I'm somewhat confused ["Ron Rosen" ] Susan in MA/ME/MA last weekend [meredith ] Re: I'm somewhat confused ["Tracy J. Wells" ] SW in Greenville, SC 4.19.07 ["Tracy J. Wells" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 05 May 2007 22:43:17 -0400 From: Jean Rossner Subject: I'm somewhat confused From the May member newsletter for WUMB, verbatim (and accompanied by what I have to call the most unflattering photo of Susan I've ever seen): - ------- Susan Werner joins Dave Palmatier for _Live at Noon_ on Friday, June 1. Susan Werner's latest release, _The Gospel Truth_, attempts to capture the joy and spirituality she witnessed in visits to over 20 churches across the country. Werner's website declares her new CD to be possibly "the first agnostic" gospel album. Werner says, "My personal doubts aside, religion gives us much of our energy as a nation, and is a source, I think, of the beautiful naivete we have about truly being a force of good in the world. It's a part of the American personality." - ----- That wasn't quite how I'd understood the album. Can somebody better informed enlighten me, please? Jean 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: Sun, 6 May 2007 00:07:32 -0500 From: "Tracy J. Wells" Subject: SW in Nashville 4.19.07 Hi all... was talking to a fellow lister the other day and was hearing some grumbles over the fact that no one has reported in about any of the recent shows... while I wasn't able to make it to any of Susan's Southeast shows since I'm now living in Omaha, I did make sure that I harassed all my friends and relatives about going to the shows. And I succeeded -- my best friend's husband and mother-in-law were at the Nashville show (co-bill with Kate Campbell), my mom and sister were at the Greenville, SC show, and my uncle was at the Atlanta show. All of them raved about how great the shows were. And Susan didn't even have the band with her for these shows! Anyway, I figured I'd pass along some details of what I heard from them. This email is about the Nashville show... my friend's mother-in- law, Debbie, emailed me as soon as she got home from the Nashville show. It's so funny... I met Debbie at my friend's wedding back in October, where I had the DJ play "May I Suggest" as a tribute to my friends during my maid of honor toast. Debbie (the mother of the groom) came up to me afterwards and said she loved the song and that it made her cry and she wanted to know who the artist was so she could get the CD. So I told her, but of course she didn't remember and so she emailed me later to find out. And then the poor lady has been subjected to rantings and ravings from me over the past several months... as soon as I found out Susan was coming to Nashville (where Debbie lives), I emailed her and was like OOH LOOK SUSAN WERNER IS COMING TO NASHVILLE, YOU MUST GO. lol. She probably thinks I'm insane. But obviously she knew I would want to hear about it, so she emailed me about the show... I'm forwarding these to you below... (oh yeah, for context -- my friend's husband is a Methodist minister. :o) P.S. I love how she's all "gosh I wish susan would have just sang the whole show by herself, forget kate campbell" in her write-up. hahaha. That's not exactly what she said but you can tell that's what she was thinking. I just saw Kate here in Omaha last weekend -- she was fantastic!!! Wish I had a Kate fan's review of the Nashville show as well -- probably would be a bit of a different perspective! Begin forwarded message: > Date: April 19, 2007 12:02:56 AM CDT > To: "Tracy Wells" > Subject: Susan Werner Concert > > Hi Tracy, > I just got home from the Bluebird Cafe following Susan Werner's > concert. She is even better in person-what a phenomenal musician! > I was so disappointed that she did not sing "May I Suggest". Kate > Campbell was good too, but not as good as Susan and she sang at > least half of the show. Matt went with me since Jessica was on a > business trip. We both bought her new CD and when she found out > Matt was a minister, she gave him another copy. I'll e-mail you > later what songs she sang when I have a chance to look at the CD. > She sang mostly from the new album. We talked to her afterwards to > sign CDs. She knew who you were immediately and said she would see > your sister soon. Thanks so much for letting us know about the > concert. She said she had not been to Nashville in about 4 years > and felt the south to be a mystery to her. Talk to you later. > Love, Debbie > P.S. I recognized the words to one of her songs that you used in > your last e-mail! > I especially liked the lyric from Sunday Morning ( I think) that > said you ask too many questions, and she replies you ask too few. > Loved that! Begin forwarded message: > Date: April 25, 2007 6:06:45 PM CDT > To: "Tracy Wells" > > Hi Tracy, > Sorry to be so long with this e-mail. I really enjoyed the Susan > Werner concert. I wish the concert had just been her, because she > is just a fantastic singer and musician. She sang: > Why is your heaven so small > Did trouble me (I love that song!) > Sunday mornings > Our Father > I will have my portion > I Can't Be New > I know there was at least one other song, but I can't remember what > it was. Then she sang with Kate Campbell (I think that was her > name). They sang some old gospels songs, but Kate sang a long time > by herself. Anyway if you ever hear of her being in Nashville > again, please let me know. I hope you are doing well. Hope to see > you again sometime. Love, Debbie 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: Sat, 5 May 2007 22:14:21 -0700 From: "Ron Rosen" Subject: Re: I'm somewhat confused > That wasn't quite how I'd understood the album. Can somebody better > informed enlighten me, please? Uhh...marketing...? 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: Sun, 06 May 2007 01:33:32 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Susan in MA/ME/MA last weekend Hi, I know I'm waaaay delinquent in posting about Susan and the band's shows last weekend in Mass. and Maine ... suffice it to say I've had about as bad a week as a human being can have, but I've been meaning to at least post something, so here we go. Thursday evening woj and I went up to the Iron Horse to see Susan and the band (full band -- Greg Holt on bass, Colleen Sexton on backing vox, and Trina Hamlin on vox, percussion, and OMFG-that-rules harmonica). There was no opener, and two sets -- the first consisting of most of _The Gospel Truth_, and then the second a mix of old favorites, starting with "Time Between Trains" (the first real showcase of Trina's harmonica on the night). Near the end of the show Susan relinquished the stage so both Colleen and Trina could do songs of their own, to show the audience what they can do themselves. All in all the show rocked, and a great time was had by all. woj and I had decided to take the opportunity to run away, so on Friday we headed up to Maine for Susan's show at the Stone Mountain Arts Center in rural Brownfield, just outside of Fryeburg on the New Hampshire border. Pretty much the last place you'd expect to find the best music venue in North America, but there it is. Seriously, this place is stunning. From the audience perspective it's amazing -- acoustically perfect, great sound system run by a guy who knows what the hell he's doing, beautiful space, good food, great staff ... and from the performer's perspective (which I confess I got to see) it's almost beyond words. The best backstage *ever*. The show there was great. It was just Susan and Trina as a duo, which they'd only done once before at the Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis back in February, but it turned out wonderfully. The show was structured pretty much the same as the previous night. Bill Morrissey, who lives nearby and had a show there the next day turned up to be a surprise special guest, and Susan and Trina backed him on one song and that was pretty cool. Trina did one of her own, too. On Saturday woj and I decided to do the trifecta and go to Susan's full-band show in Lancaster, MA that night. We met up with Jeff Wasilko for dinner at a place that was really good, but had the world's slowest service, so we ended up getting to the Lancaster Coffeehouse a bit late. Good thing we'd already heard it all a couple times before. ;) That was a very good show, too. Full band again (though Colleen Sexton had another gig so she was only there for the first set), similar structure and set list, and Susan decided to showcase Trina's talents so they all jammed out on Trina's "hit" "Jacaranda Tree" while Jane stood there holding Trina's harmonica b/c Trina didn't have her harp rack with her and it's a guitar song for her too. It was one of the funniest things in the history of ever. So there you go, three shows in three nights. We decided to be reasonable and not go four-for-four and do Middletown, NY on Sunday too ... anybody here catch the show at The Mansion? - -- =============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth =============================================== hear at the HOMe House Concert Series http://hom.smoe.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 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 May 2007 00:36:47 -0500 From: "Tracy J. Wells" Subject: Re: I'm somewhat confused On May 5, 2007, at 9:43 PM, Jean Rossner wrote: > That wasn't quite how I'd understood the album. How did you understand it? I don't find that description that odd... but I guess just because it was on the very press release that came out with the album... seems fairly accurate to me. Maybe the quote about 'attempts to capture the joy and spirituality she witnessed in visits to over 20 churches across the country' doesn't mention the more skeptical pieces on there, but I think she is out to capture the joy in church music (you know, she keeps quoting what her friend said to her at the gospel music festival about 'can you get the joy without the Jesus' or whatever). This seems a lot more accurate description of the album to me than all these news articles I keep seeing where they're all like, "OOOH CONTROVERSIAL NEW ALBUM SEEKS TO DESTROY THE CHURCH FROM WITHIN" or something like that. In actuality I don't think the album is all that controversial... at all. It's just honest. And it's pretty clear to me that Susan is out to do more than just critique the church with this album. Seriously, some of the articles that have come out have been sort of on the sensationalist side and to me, it seems clear that the journalists writing it just have no idea how to talk about religion if it's not like, extreme right orthodoxy.... or no concept that any other kind of religion exists out there. I guess if you weren't plugged into the religion scene you wouldn't know that, though, since the extreme conservative folks are the ones who get all the airtime. It's just frustrating (the stereotypes about what "religious people" are and are not, and how they will or won't take to this album.. as evidenced by discussions we've had on this list about "church people" and whatnot.) Tracy 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: Sun, 6 May 2007 00:36:59 -0500 From: "Tracy J. Wells" Subject: SW in Greenville, SC 4.19.07 So, a few weeks ago Susan played the Handlebar in Greenville, SC... the listening room in my old college town! I went to Furman University, which is located in Greenville... also home of Bob Jones University! LOL. Furman was a formerly Baptist college and still pretty conservative (a 'dry' campus (haha), with 'visitation hours' between men and women in the dorms, etc), but compared to Bob Jones we were a haven of liberalism. I loved how Furman students were always making fun of Bob Jones, when compared to most college students we were like the tamest ever. Anyway. Susan was threatening to go to Bob Jones while she was in Greenville... don't know if she made it over there or not. Greenville is about a 2-hour drive from Columbia, where I grew up and where my family still lives. So my mom and my sister drove up for the concert. My sister had seen Susan at the show in Des Moines, IA back in January with me (she had come into town to visit me, but we had carefully planned the visit around the date of Susan's show). And I had taken my parents to see Susan at the Somerville Theater when they came to visit me once back when I lived in Boston... Anyway, so immediately after the concert, I get a text message from my sister that said, simply, "I sang w her." (I should also mention that my sister is a budding singer/songwriter herself.) Of course, I'm totally spasing out and text her back, "DETAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!" and she responds, 'later.' So she calls me a while later, when she and my mom were back on the road headed home. Ashley (my sister) told me all about the show, and I kept telling her she should join this list and write it up for everyone, but she's not one for e-lists or message boards or anything like that, so I knew she probably wouldn't get around to it... and obviously she hasn't. And now it's been a while, but I'll try to remember what she told me. So apparently there was a pretty small crowd at the show, Ashley said probably no more than 15 or 20 people. So Susan's playing along on the stage and then like, halfway through the first set or whatnot (not sure if she did one or two sets, actually), she goes, "Hey, this is no fun -- I want to be down there with you!" and gets up, unplugs her guitar, comes down off the stage, pulls up a chair, and just sits down with the audience folks and starts strumming away, totally "unplugged" - no mics, no amplification, nothing. Ashley said it was totally awesome... and she was doing a lot of stuff from the new album, of course, but she also did Sorry About Jesus -- which I was SOOO jealous of when I heard that Ashley got to hear her do that live (and totally unplugged at that!) cause I didn't discover Susan until I Can't Be New and so I've never heard her do a lot of the older stuff live. Anyway, so as she's sitting there like, hanging out with the audience and strumming along, she mentioned that she's been having some backup singers playing with her on a lot of shows lately (as we all know) but she didn't have them with her for the Southern shows. So she was like, "does anyone know how to harmonize?" And this woman who Ashley thought was a friend of Susan's got up and then Ashley herself got up and Ashley and this other woman sang the harmony/backup vocals on Did Trouble Me and Probably Not!!! After the show, Ashley and my mom stuck around to talk to Susan, and my mom bought a copy of the new CD (and Susan signed it to "Mama Wells," hahaha.), and then Ashley asked Susan if she could show her some of her songs that she'd written (Ashley had called me before she left town like, "do you really think I should bring my guitar to the concert?" And I was like, "Um, hello! Of COURSE!!!") and of course Susan was all like, sure!!! And took Ashley backstage and let her use her guitar to play some of her songs for her. (If you want to hear some of Ashley's stuff, check out her website: www.ashleywells.com or her myspace: www.myspace.com/ashleywellsmusic . She played "One Big Us" and "Sinner's Blues" for Susan.) Susan was very complimentary of Ashley's songwriting skills and then even picked up her guitar and started playing back one of Ashley's songs (Ashley thought this was pretty awesome to hear Susan playing a song SHE had written!) and giving her some pointers on a few things about her technique, etc. So obviously this was a pretty exciting night for Ashley -- she was on cloud nine! I only wish I could have been there to witness all this!! My uncle saw Susan a few days later in Atlanta at Eddie's Attic and called me as soon as he left the show (at like 11 pm or something) to rave about how much he enjoyed it and how good she was (he'd never seen her before and didn't really know her music -- I was just like, you HAVE to go to this concert and he actually listened to me and went!) Anyway, I don't have all the details on that show but I do know that that one was packed (sold out, in fact) and that my uncle left there as a total fan. So, the Gospel Truth is continuing to reach people around the country, my friends. Hallelujah! ;o) Grace and peace, Tracy 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 #52 ******************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------- 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