Guess you'd have to start with the Holy Trinity: Bob, the Beatles, and the Dead. They go way way back for me. Of course, Dylan continues to flourish, develop and astonish. I went to Dead shows for 23 years. Between their original material and their incredibly diverse repertoire of covers, they were and are a continuing source of inspiration to me. As for newer artists, I am a huge fan of Steve Earle. I'm a longtime fan of Emmylou Harris (starting with her collaboration with Gram Parsons) and Linda Ronstadt. Although not songwriters, both artists have incredible taste in songs and turned me on to some wonderful songwriters. Of course, Gram Parsons ranks right up there. Kurt Cobain. The Band, John Prine, Iris Dement, Mark Knopfler, Johnny and Rosanne Cash, Hank Williams. I also really dig Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, Buddy and Julie Miller, Mary Gauthier, Jeff Tweedy, Eliza Gilkyson, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Elvis Costello, Patty Griffin. I am also an old fashioned blue stocking, and I love the work of Iris Murdoch, George Eliot, Jane Austen, the Brontes, Dickens, Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Edith Wharton, James Joyce, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, Ruth Rendell, Wallace Stevens, Yeats, Tom Wolfe, John Updike, and many others.
Susan Kane crafts melodic and memorable songs about life, about relationships, nature, and personal stories imagined and real. Drawing on country, folk and blues influences, and with a warm mellifluous voice, she delivers moving performances. She writes about the struggle of women to define themselves among the tensions and contradictions in the roles they play in everyday life. Other songs recall simple pleasures - like the myriad joys of childhood and make-believe, or finding solace in the exquisite blue beauty of roadside chicory. Still others are wry observations on various contemporary follies. She is an active performer on the Hudson Valley acoustic music circuit, playing music festivals, such as the 2005 Pleasantville Music Festival, coffeehouses and other venues, including the venerable Towne Crier Cafe in Pawling, NY. Her CD, So Long has enjoyed airplay on over 100 radio stations. Produced by Billy Masters (guitarist for Suzanne Vega, Cry Cry Cry, Richard Shindell), So Long showcases Kane's lyric driven songs, set to a variety of musical forms - from roots based alternative country and blues to folk riffs and rock. They're memorable and timeless, as if you've always known them. You'll find yourself unconsciously humming the tunes for days after a spin or two.
With her warm, mellifluous voice, listeners often think she reminds them of someone else, but can't quite come up with a comparison. And maybe that's a good thing because the voice has a distinctive quality that's hers alone. Kane's music springs from something deep down inside, personal and private. Through her songs, she hopes to make an emotional connection with her audience, one that with a lyric or a bar or two can pierce the heart.
Her song "Chicory Blue" was a 2005 Great American Song Contest Award winner.
Kay Ashley- HELIOTROPE cd release party at DROM-(DromNyc. com)... a 14-piece band extravaganza with special guests Vlada Tomova's Balkan Tales... $15 cover charge includes a free copy of HELIOTROPE...
