From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V11 #66 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Sunday, July 1 2007 Volume 11 : Number 066 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- Fwd: another review / susan at new bedford summerfest [Kellie ] Re: blog review of san fran show ["Tracy J. Wells" ] GLOWING Chicago Tribune article on SW ["Tracy J. Wells" Subject: Fwd: another review / susan at new bedford summerfest > i'm not sure if anyone posted this one yet, but here it is: > > http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/index.php? > name=News&file=article&sid=1597 > > anyone headed to the new bedford folk fest next weekend? susan > will be playing the opening night concert with vance gilbert & > maura o'connell, from 6-9 pm, and then will be a part of the > festivities on saturday as well. > > http://www.newbedfordsummerfest.com/ > > maybe see some of you'se out there! ;) reinhardt? you going? > > kellie lin > www.myspace.com/kellielin 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, 30 Jun 2007 07:47:42 -0400 From: Kellie Subject: blog review of san fran show > http://www.sanfranvoice.com/last-nights-show-flirting-with-susan- > werner/ 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, 30 Jun 2007 13:04:05 -0400 From: "Tracy J. Wells" Subject: Re: blog review of san fran show Great review!!! "Flirting with Susan Werner" -- I love it!! hahaha This writer is very creative & descriptive. Nice. On Jun 30, 2007, at 7:47 AM, Kellie wrote: >> http://www.sanfranvoice.com/last-nights-show-flirting-with-susan- >> werner/ > > 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 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, 30 Jun 2007 13:23:18 -0400 From: "Tracy J. Wells" Subject: GLOWING Chicago Tribune article on SW Wow -- this guy hit the nail on the head about Susan!! Amen, brother! ("Startled" is a great word to describe what she did to me as well the first time I ever saw her live, under the blazing sun at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival two years ago with the 'I Can't Be New' material... she made me "sit up and take notice" -- LITERALLY! And the rest is history... :o) ~Tracy P.S. Wow, check out the ticket prices on this event too! http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/nearwest/chi- ovn_0629jazzjun29,1,3979573.story?coll=chi-newslocalnearwest- hed&ctrack=1&cset=true Werner clicks with cabaret By Howard Reich Tribune arts critic Published June 29, 2007 Early last year, a little-known Chicago singer-songwriter startled listeners who had gathered in the Empire Room of the Palmer House Hilton. Equipped with an uncommonly expressive voice, an easy facility at the piano and -- best of all -- a cheeky attitude as songwriter, Susan Werner emerged the star, and the great discovery, of the third Chicago Cabaret Convention. Since that indelible night, Werner has released an ebullient CD, "The Gospel Truth" (Sleeve Dog Records) and headlined at the Auditorium Theatre, where she returns this weekend for the next installment of the "On Stage with ... " series. As its title implies, the series brings audiences right on stage with the performer, while the glorious Auditorium serves as a glittering backdrop. "The glamor of the building certainly does a lot of the work for you," says Werner. "It just heightens the drama of your presentation." Not that Werner's work requires any such extraneous help. A performer who quickly takes control of a room, Werner ranks among the most chameleonic of singer-songwriters, her work spanning several genres. Her newest CD, "The Gospel Truth," for instance, intriguingly explores gospel idioms from an unconventionally agnostic perspective. "Gospel music for nonbelievers," Werner calls it. Yet her previous efforts gave little hint of such a direction. "I Can't Be New" (Koch Records, 2004), her hyper-literate venture into songwriting in the Cole Porter mode, for instance, brought a distinctly feminist viewpoint to a genre that rarely provides it. Earlier CDs, meanwhile, leaned toward contemporary folk, leaving audiences perhaps a bit confused on who exactly Werner is. This may help explain why she's less famous -- and less strategically marketed - -- than her talents merit. Yet she says she's determined to continue investigating different musical idioms with each project. "The down side of this kind of creativity is that it's hard for people to know where to put you in the bin at the record store," concedes Werner, who trained to be an opera singer but found greater enthusiasm from audiences for her pop songwriting. "The upside is that there's great excitement and daring in this. Everyone seems to know that something is in motion here, something is in rapid motion. "I'm not doing the same show twice, I'm not doing the same record twice." Yet the results in each instance are not equally persuasive. "The Gospel Truth," which Werner says she began to conceive after attending last year's Chicago Gospel Festival, has plenty of verve but nowhere near the lyric sophistication of "I Can't Be New" (nor was it intended to). So for those who hoped "I Can't Be New" announced the arrival of an ultra-savvy composer capable of updating the classic, jazz-tinged songwriting traditions, some hopes may have been dashed. Even so, Werner justly has won plaudits from critics across the country for the full breadth of her repertoire. Her sound may be stylistically malleable, but its quality is beyond question. Thus the New Yorker called her a "clever songwriter and an engaging performer" who "brings literacy and wit back to popular song." The Washington Post saluted her as "always an impressive songwriter." Exactly where Werner's irrepressibly eclectic tastes take her next is anyone's guess but, in many ways, she emerges as an heir to one of Chicago's most accomplished singer-songwriter-pianists, Patricia Barber. "If only I could play a piano like her," quips Werner. Susan Werner Spanning the world from Cole Porter to cool gospel When: 8 p.m. Saturday Where: Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Pkwy. Price: $50-$75; 312-341-9668. - ------------- hreich@tribune.com Copyright ) 2007, Chicago Tribune 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, 30 Jun 2007 20:01:58 -0400 From: Kellie Subject: Re: GLOWING Chicago Tribune article on SW This blurb below is exactly why I love listening to Susan. I get the distinct impression that she is genuinely interested in what she's doing, and at any moment, anything can happen! ;) On Jun 30, 2007, at 1:23 PM, Tracy J. Wells wrote: > Earlier CDs, meanwhile, leaned toward contemporary folk, leaving > audiences perhaps a bit confused on who exactly Werner is. This may > help explain why she's less famous -- and less strategically marketed > -- than her talents merit. Yet she says she's determined to continue > investigating different musical idioms with each project. > > "The down side of this kind of creativity is that it's hard for > people to know where to put you in the bin at the record store," > concedes Werner, who trained to be an opera singer but found greater > enthusiasm from audiences for her pop songwriting. 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, 30 Jun 2007 20:12:42 -0400 From: Kellie Subject: (non-SW) what non-standard song would you love to hear as a standard? hi all - i'm doing some work on a new project, and i'm looking for a few songs from contemporary music that might translate well to a cabaret or classic jazz standard-y treatment. can you think of any? i figured with the eclectic taste in music on this list, some of you might have ideas! and hey, where is everybody these days? it has been so quiet on the list for a long while! ;) any thoughts you got, i'd love to hear 'em! thanks, kellie lin 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 #66 ******************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------- 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