This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Muscle cars? Baseball shirts? Drawings of stars and flames? Oh Susanna, what’s got into you?
Back when she first appeared on the scene, Vancouver singer-songwriter Suzie Ungerleider possessed a Gillian Welch-like Appalachian sound as quaint and nostalgic as her nom de disque. But with every album she makes, she gets more in touch with her inner roots-rocker. Ungerleider’s self-titled fourth release finds her trading in her gingham dress for one of Bonnie Raitt’s old jean jackets and a pair of Lucinda Williams’ worn leather pants. Backed by a band that includes members of Blue Rodeo and The Sadies along with Winnipeg guitar hero Luke Doucet, Suzie kicks up her heels and lets her hair down, choogling through horn-spiked country rockers like Right By Your Side, southern gothic Band-style workouts like Carrie Lee, lazy country waltzes like Mama and funky grooves like the 9/11 number Cain Is Rising. Half a dozen other cuts find Suzie revisiting the stark acoustic-guitar balladry of her past, but overall, Oh Susanna is the sound of an artist giving her muse a makeover. Don’t you cry for her.
