When Oh Susanna (aka Suzie Ungerleider) played the NAC’s fourth stage last Friday she reminded the sold-out crowd of all the reasons they fell for her sound in the first place.
It’s easy to be hooked by that voice of hers, the yearning in it and how it gets inside a melody. Whether belting out a high lonesome chorus or sweetly lilting along, there’s an honesty that leaves you no choice but to believe her. So whether it’s a song about heartache or robbing banks you find yourself following her through winding tales of underdogs, dreamers, darkness and beauty on the fringes.
Friday’s show was the last in Royal Wood’s Spotlights series in collaboration with NAC Presents. Building on their relationship with Royal Wood in recent years, the NAC invited him to curate his own 5-show discovery series showcasing some of Canada’s best hidden talents. Lucky for us, Oh Susanna was one of his picks.
Jim Bryson’s sleepy charmer “Oregon” opened the set. From the first few bars of its laid back groove as a wash of instrumentation joined in behind Suzie’ honeyed vocals we knew we were in for a treat. The sound was big and rich thanks to a fine band of musicians including Suzie’s husband Cam Giroux on drums, Eli Abrams on bass, guitarist Gord Tough (Kathleen Edwards) and Ottawa’s own Jim Bryson. Abrams’ joyful abandon in keeping the grooves tight was fun to watch though the real standout was Bryson. On guitars, keys and beautiful harmony vocals he was a secret weapon of a sideman, filling in the spaces with a keen ear.
Most of the show featured songs from Oh Susanna’s latest release Namedropper, where she and producer Jim Bryson recorded brand new songs written for the project by friends in the Canadian roots music scene. It was funny how the contributing musicians seemed to join Suzie and band on stage in these songs. There was Joel Plaskett on “Into my arms” with his penchant for rhyme-y wordplay and sunny pop-rock riffs. Ron Sexsmith’s signature was instantly recognizable too on the poppy bounce of “Wait until the sun comes up” sweetened with Tough’s jangly 12-string electric guitar.
Just as Royal Wood had given Oh Susanna a shout out in curating the show, she in turn shared the love with songs, stories and kind words about everyone from heavyweight Jim Cuddy to Kingston’s Rueben DeGroot. Not to say there weren’t any Oh Susanna originals in the mix. After all, an Oh Susanna show just wouldn’t be the same without the darkness of story songs like “Long black train” or “River Blue.”
Namedropper’s songs also made for an eclectic set. There were nods to Randy Newman and gospel in Rueben DeGroot’s “Savings and Loan” about robbing banks. “Cottonseed,” written by Keri Latimer of Nathan created the space for the band to show its range and strip the sound to its bare essentials. Introduced as a song about seeking freedom it was a trip with a hypnotic hummed refrain and gorgeous interplay between Suzie and Jim’s voices. There was even room for a few good rock n rollers like Jay Harris’“1955,”that brimmed with too-cool-for school-swagger.
Just when we were getting used to the big band Suzie brought the sound right down and everyone in real close, for a transfixing performance of “Forever at your feet” a song she co-wrote with Bazil Donovan. This was followed up with a disarmingly earnest duet with Jim on Ron Sexsmith’s “I love the way she dresses” (on the inside).
Another highlight was Jim Cuddy’s “Dying light” a blue-eyed soul heartbreaker about an aging rock star. Even if you’d heard her cover of “Dark end of the street” and knew how much emotion she can wring out of a melody, it still came as a surprise when she punched us all in the gut on lines like “I’m not strong enough, to come up from behind, and catch up to my dreams.” The band did a fantastic job of keeping the groove super tight and adding sweet harmony vocals. The only thing I didn’t love was the big rock sound on “River Blue.” While it may have expressed the bitterness in the lyrics it also overpowered their heaviness.
Altogether it was a really generous show with two full sets and a long encore where the band played their hearts out on extended versions of a bunch of songs. Ever gracious, Suzie closed out with Royal Wood’s “Goodnight.” The ballad was a nice finish full of sweet love-y lyrics and a feel good lift in the chorus. By night’s end all that was left was a room full of fans already looking forward to the next time she comes to town.
.gif)
