| Suzy Bogguss |
When I asked Suzy Bogguss to name her greatest career achievement to date and she replied “Just hanging in there, I guess”, I figured we would get along.
She told me about the early years, hustling her own gigs, driving long distances in her beat up camper van with only her dog Dutchess for both company and protection. Bear in mind these days were long before the magic of the Internet so where now an act might have a clipboard on the merchandise table asking for email addresses, back then Suzy had to talk to each individual and get along with them well enough to be given their home address. Part of her daily routine would be writing and mailing postcards to people on that address list with individual “Hi, remember me, well I’m playing close to you again on such and such date, it would be great to see you” messages.
Activity which Suzy describes as “being your own horn tooter”.
Attention to detail and determination to succeed which would still benefit a musician starting out on the ladder today. Thinking about it that approach could stand a comeback – personally speaking I get lots of emails and Facebook invitations to go and see acts on stage but if any of them took the trouble to write that invitation on a postcard and mail it to me, I think I might be far more motivated to go along.
A new fifty song compilation set “Aces – the definitive Capitol collection” has just been released in the UK taking the listener through Suzy’s success with that major label. As well as being a superb addition to any fan’s collection it is a tangible reminder that all the hard work in those early days can pay handsome dividends.
Suzy’s childhood was spent in small town America, out on the prairie where everyone knew everyone’s business and the community was solid and generally supportive. Her grandparents moved to California in order to be close to Suzy’s aunt and uncle and during one school vacation she took the train right across country to visit them.
“When I got there I found out my Grandmother worked at the church with Dale Evans.”
Saturday morning kids television in Suzy’s small town Cornbelt country was pretty much limited to cowboy series, My Friend Flicka, The Rifleman, and of course Roy Rogers.
“It turned out Dale Evans and Roy Rogers lived close to my Grandparents and they were good friends. So at the age of twelve I got to go over to their house and meet Roy and Dale and I got to hang out at their house quite a lot and got to eat TV dinners with them in their living room, so the cowboy thing became real and personal for me.”
Not only did the cowboy fascination become real, it stuck with Suzy for life to the extent it has an influence on her stage performances today. “I still yodel in every single show” she told me.
Suzy is a self taught yodeller. “I learned while I was driving across the country from Illinois to Montana to play some shows in ski resorts”.
I asked how difficult learning had been. “Let’s just say it’s not something you want to learn while there’s anyone else around” she admitted with a chuckle “you can’t learn to yodel quietly.”
“Aces –the Definitive Capitol collection” is available from www.humpheadcountry.com
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A full version of Chris's conversation with Suzy appears in the June issue of Country Music People magazine.
