For her latest release, Massachusetts-born, Vancouver based folk-Americana singer-songwriter Suzie Ungerleider, performing under the name of Oh Susanna, has assembled a collection of covers. Except you’ll not have heard any of the songs before. Put together by Ungerleider and her regular collaborator Jim Bryson (who penned album opener Oregon), all the material here was written specifically for the project by an impressive array of fellow Canadians, some better known than others, that include Ron Sexsmith, Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy, Old Man Luedecke and Amelia Curran.
Sexsmith actually scores twice, with the country styled Wait Until The Sun Comes Up, delivered with a Partonesque twang, and the lovely bonus track album closer, I Love The Way She Dresses co-penned by Angaleena Presley from The Pistol Annies.
As you might imagine from its genesis, there’s a diversity of styles that range from the tumbling jangling folk-pop sensibility of Joel Plaskett’s Into My Arms and the organ backed early Costelloish chug of Jay Harris’s 1955 to Rueben DeGroot’s piano accompanied outlaw ballad waltzer Savings & Loan and the dreamy Brian Wilson air of Cottonseeds written by Keri Latimer.
Inevitably, some numbers are stronger than others, but notable highlights would have to include Melissa McLelland’s playful bass throbbing quirky Stevie Nicks-ish jogger Mozart For the Cat (one of two numbers to feature Kathleen Edwards on vocals), Luke Doucet’s wistful, gently pulsing ballad Letterbomb and Cuddy’s slow six-minute organ-driven soul burner waltz, Dying Light, its ‘maybe I’m clear now’ line given added resonance by Ungerleider’s breast cancer scare as the album was nearing completion.
It’s unlikely to massively boost Ungerleider’s international profile and many followers might wish she’d produced more of her self-penned storysongs, but, with a voice that can straddle Harris and Welch with ease, it remains an always engaging listen.
Review by: Mike Davies
Wait Until the Sun Comes Up featuring Ron Sexsmith
UK/Ireland Tour Dates
JANUARY
23 – Ireland (TBC)
24 – Belfast, IR – Black Box
25 – Gateshead – Cluny 2
27 – Glasgow – Celtic Connections
28 – Sheffield – Greystones
29 – London – Old Queen’s Head
30 – Leek – Foxlowe Arts Centre
31 – Leyland – Leyland Club
Out now on Continental Song City
Order via Amazon