Here's a sample of the crazy gamut of the music I enjoy that has influenced me in some way: Heart, Rickie Lee Jones, Supertramp, Shawn Colvin, Bonnie Raitt, AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Kevin Welch, Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, Sisters Euclid, Little Feat, Darrell Scott, Big Sugar, Chris Whitley, Matthew Good, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Kurt Swinghammer, Bob Marley, Thundermug, Steve Earle, TangleEye, Tom Waits, Bill Durst, Sting, The Police, J.S. Bach
A Saskatoon native living in Toronto, Suzie Vinnick is the owner of a gorgeous, powerful voice and performs with a sweet mixture of engaging candidness and unparalleled musicianship. She was nominated for a 2009 JUNO in the Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Solo Category for her 3rd album, Happy Here, which was produced by Juno-Award winning singer/songwriter Stephen Fearing. Suzie also won the 2008 Canadian Maple Blues Female Vocalist of the Year and just won 1st place in the Blues Category of the Unisong International Songwriting Contest for her co-write “Sometimes I Think I Can Fly”. She was nominated Female Vocalist and Bassist at the 2007 Canadian Maple Blues Awards, and was the recipient of three 2006 Canadian Maple Blues Awards for Female Vocalist, Bassist and shared Songwriter of the Year with Rick Fines for their 2006 release, Nothing Halfway.
Suzie has been featured nationally on CBC Radio on Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Café, and has performed across Canada and the US, and for Canadian Peacekeepers in Bosnia and the Persian Gulf. She performs powerfully as a solo act or with her tasteful side players, as a duo and band with Rick Fines, and is also a member of the groups the Marigolds (with Gwen Swick and Caitlin Hanford of Quartette), Betty & the Bobs, , and the folk-pop trio, Vinnick Sheppard Harte (VSH).
Suzie’s latest CD is called "Happy Here" and was released in the fall of 2008 and was produced by Canadian Juno Award winning singer/songwriter Stephen Fearing.
FOR DIGITAL DOWNLOADS, CLICK THE FOLLOWING iTUNES LINK!
QUOTABLES:
"An engaging performer..."
- The Globe & Mail
“...a voice of spun gold and honey” Access Magazine
“One of my favorite singers.”
- Holger Petersen, CBC’s Saturday Night Blues
“One of the greatest voices in Canada!!”
- Elaine Overholt; vocal coach to Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, Catherine Zeta-Jones
“..you sing like sun on snow..”
- CraigNorthey.com
“Captivating and charismatic, Vinnick's performance underlines the essence of the blues while setting out on a journey all her own. A voice and a feel that'll soothe the keeper at the crossroads.”
- John Rutherford, Director, Music Programming
Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts, Calgary, Alberta
For those of you who are still reading, here is a slightly more personal bio:
I’ve been playing (and listening) to music for a long time…when I was little I used to sneak my Dad’s guitar out of his closet lay it across my lap and strum the open strings. I used to go with my big brother to his guitar lessons, and sit outside his bedroom door when he’d blast the stereo in his room. Every chance I could I’d sneak peeks at the piano in my grade school, my auntie and uncles, my friends who were lucky enough to have pianos. When I was 9, after deciding that my friend Dougie and I were going to start a band with a couple of his musical friends, I was handed down my brother's old guitar and started guitar lessons. Then the guitar fell on the kitchen floor and its neck snapped. My folks kindly bought me another folk guitar and I continued on.
A few years later I learned tenor sax and joined the school band, the Lions Concert band, upon graduating from grade school I joined my high school concert band and wind ensemble, then decided to learn the electric bass (there were 2 guitarists, Kevin and I, so I thought I'd learn another instrument) and played bass in jazz band and jazz combo. I used to sing into the wall above my stereo along with my records so I could hear myself and eventually started attending local jams with my friends Keith and Timmy (they taught me my first Jimmy Hendrix tune, “Hey Joe”), toured small town bars in Saskatchewan playing cover tunes with my friend John Mair. I played electric bass in the U of S Jazz Ensemble for 2 years, kept jamming, did everything I could do to keep my feet somehow in music. There’s undoubtedly more I did, this is just what comes to me right now.
Music and I have always just hung out and been the best of friends. Some quiet persistence and determination have been a blessing, along with the simple love of music and I am now able to make a living making music… : )
Thank you so much for the add and glad you joined us and friends. Keep up the awesome work, well done with your fabulisious music lol. Please say the same with Rick Fines
Thanks for the add, Suzie. I really like your voice, the range from sweet and almost effortless in "Happy Here" over to a raspy, worldly woman's way in "Sometime I Think I Can Fly". Kudos! And I love the story about your brother's guitar....cheers - Pauline/Sleeps Six
Hey Suzie - thanks so much for the new music. I spent much of our drive to TX this weekend buried in your record. Great to meet you and hope we get to make some music together soon.
Aloha Suzie! It was great meeting you at SummerFolk. We're going to start trying to get on one of the stages for next year (if not one, then 3! haha) We had such an amazing time. And you were fantastic with all your bands, and of course solo as well.
Keep in touch, and check out the banner for our headlining show in September! It's in our albums! It would be lovely to see you there.
Online Now!
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