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Event
Susan Werner - in concert
Two years ago Susan Werner graced our stage with a thrilling concert, and we described it then as:
"The air was electric tonight in anticipation of Susan Werner's concert ... and she supercharged our audience with a mix of dynamic keyboard ballads and gospel variations, and guitar based solos on love and life. She brought our Ken "The Rocket" Korb on stage with his harmonicas to harmoniously accompany her on two moving songs ... and her clever repartee on Chicago etal kept us in stitches. This was an evening that will not be forgotten."
As part of out 40th Anniversary Year celebration, Susan is one of the hit performers returning to our stage this year, and we expect this show to be as exciting as her last. Susan's recent album "The Gospel Truth" features her modern day Gospel compositions, some irreverent and controversial.
Susan Werner maintains an active touring career throughout the U.S. and has received a string of accolades from the likes of The Washington Post, The Village Voice and The New Yorker. She has become one of the defining artists of the folk music genre. Her songs effortlessly slide between folk, jazz and pop, and are delivered with a sassy wit and classic midwestern charm on piano or acoustic guitar.
Farm girl Susan Werner was raised in rural Iowa but began her professional music career in Philadelphia, after studying classical voice at Temple University. Inspired by a Nanci Griffith concert, Werner left behind her opera training and began performing as a singer-songwriter at coffeehouses throughout the northeast. She self-released her first album "Midwestern Saturday Night" in 1992 and then went on to put out "Live at Tin Angel" the following year. In 1995 came her breakout album "Last of the Good Straight Girls". Werner next recorded two albums even better than her previous work, adding some country and soul sounds to her signature vocal stylings, "Time Between Trains", and in 2001 "New Non-Fiction".
Always ready to reinvent herself, in 2004 Susan Werner released her album of her American Songbook gems "I Can't Be New". For years she had incorporated cabaret-style numbers in her live performances, exchanging her guitar for the piano, and she'd been asked by her audience to put all those songs in one recording. Fans and critics alike sang her praises: the All Music Guide calling it "a brilliantly constructed, soulful, and cleverly tender effort by a songwriter and musician who is in such complete command of her gifts that it's almost scary."
In 2005 Susan Werner made a splash on satellite radio and in the blogosphere with her "alternative national anthem" entitled "My Strange Nation". For this song, Werner adopted the musical style of a battle hymn, and added lyrics that encompass both the poetry and hypocrisy innate to the United States.
We expect Susan to perform, courageously beneath our venue's giant cross, songs from her socially conscious, contemporary gospel album, "The Gospel Truth", which balances the faithful and the agnostic in one collection of originals, both heartfelt and incisive, biting yet optimistic, drawing from Werners own personal spiritual questions to engage the Christian community at large. Addressing those universal doubts that even fundamentalists surely have but wish to God they could verbalize, Werner seeks common ground with her traditional religious counterparts in finding solutions to the issues that divide America. The infectious joy of gospel music with lyrics anybody - or, almost anybody - can agree with - and sing along to ...
Her sassy wit combined with her classic midwestern charm and her outspoken song lyrics make Susan's shows as exciting as folk was in the classic folk era of the 60's and 70's. ... Don't miss this rousing evening!
At this concert, Susan will have available her newest CD, "Live at Passim", a collection of live recordings of Susan Werner performing with band from two nights at Club Passim in 2007.
Praises by others for her performances:
"Susan Werner, a clever songwriter and an engaging performer, brings literacy and wit back to popular song."
The New Yorker
" ... a triply blessed artist who sings adroitly, plays the piano smartly and, best of all, writes songs of genuine distinction and high craft ..."
Chicago Tribune
" ... a songwriter and musician who is in such complete command of her gifts that it's almost scary."
All Music Guide
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LocationCongregational Church of Huntington
30 Washington Drive
Centerport, NY 11721
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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