Search - Susan Werner :: New Non-Fiction

This Crazy Game Called Love.....

Patrice Webb | Georgetown, California USA | 02/10/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What is it about this modern world that makes having a relationship so neurotically impossible and why do women who pride themselves in their independence still wind up caught in the same old snares? This newest CD release by Susan Werner attempts to ask some of these questions and although she does not always provide answers, her disk is a band-aid to anyone who has ever been caught up in the trap of being female and single in a modern age.Werner's disk is a collection of songs that deals with the age old desire to be loved and the dilemma of finding yourself alone still looking for Mr. Right but still wanting the excitement of Mr. Wrong and of not being willing to compromise either way. These are themes that are immediately recognizable to any woman over the age of 25 who has been a victim of her own making - of dealing with expectations that are impossible to meet and coming out the loser in the game of love. In "All of the Above", Werner dissects the view of the modern woman that says having it all means never settling for less than what you want and is the kind of neurotic list making that defines many modern relationships. "Misery & Happiness" takes this concept a step further in exploring why we sometimes prefer Mr. Wrong over Mr. Right - is it the fear of losing the excitement that causes us to make these choices or can we really change the wrong into the right?Musically, the strong points of this CD truly emerge in songs like "Shade of Grey" in which Werner moves into jazz territory. If I have one complaint (and it is a small one) it is that she does not do this more often. Her voice has such a suppleness and buoyancy and her vocal phrasing is so clean and crisp that jazz seems as natural to her as breathing.Werner is also an artist that is not afraid to take chances. In a move that may be off-putting to classic folk and country aficionados Werner takes the classic Fred Neil song "Everybody's Talking" and re-invents it with a fuzzy electric guitar that lets you know that while she may be steeped in musical tradition she is not fenced in by it.The disks ending, "Epilogue: May I Suggest" is about the coming to the realization that love is something you define within yourself and that it is this definition that allows a person to grow and that mature love - be in friends, family or a lover is dependant on life as it is lived.Often crafted with flashes of wry humor, Werner's music is the same sort of intelligent folk/pop that made Mary Chapin-Carpenter's music something we could relate to and sympathize with. In her music Werner flirts with pop sensibility but, like Carpenter, is never consumed by it maintaining her folk roots and keeping her integrity intact. In a better world (one that was not so afraid of its own neurosis) Werner's music would be a mainstay on adult contemporary radio. Here's to hoping we all wake up and learn to laugh at the things that make us what we are."

Susan Werner is Not a Trained Monkey

Steven G. Barringer | Washington, D.C. United States | 09/17/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I, like many other reviewers, discovered Susan Werner by hearing her perform live, over and over during the last 10 years. I've seen her in Washington, D.C., Virginia, San Diego and Las Vegas. I have all of her CDs, and I recognize many of my own feelings about Susan's accomplishments and talents among the passionate comments submitted by other people here. I like all of her CDs, but mostly because they are my only connection to a treasured experience: the experience of seeing her sing her own songs live. But I have never loved any of the CDs, until New Nonfiction. The early ones seemed somewhat amateurish in their production values, but hey, they came from the very beginning of her career when she was performing in very small clubs, so what should we really expect? I still listen to them all the time, because they remind me of her concerts. The middle ones, especially Last of the Good Straight Girls and Time Between Trains, are more professionally produced, contain great Susan Werner songs and also covers that are perfect for her, but somehow, the production still lacks, because (as many people already said), it somehow polishes her too much and fails to capture what is magical about her voice and her performances. In my opinion, this new CD completely overcomes those problems. The sound of this CD is the thing that people love about Susan Werner; at least it's what I love. It sounds like her in concert; her beautiful and intelligent voice is all there and nothing about the production interferes with it. I can imagine the facial expressions she makes when she sings in concert, and hear the whole enormous range of her singing and playing talents. The words she writes have always been intelligent and clever, but with experience, they are becoming more routinely beautiful, without becoming overserious. This is, after all, pop music. I love this CD. What are these people talking about who say she is leaving her fans behind? Susan Werner has never been a particular kind of writer or performer; she always has sampled from every branch of popular music to ornament the words to her songs. Her songbook includes everything from a beautiful cover of Edith Piaf's La Vie en Rose, which is a perfect vessel for her voice (may she never stop performing it!), to blues, jazz, pop, country etc. Whoever diminished this CD as a surrender to country music doesn't understand music very well, other than as wallpaper. Country music is just one of the many forms of popular music. There is a great deal of dreadful country music, but there's also Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakum, Hank Williams, Jimmie Rogers, Bill Monroe. And by the way, those reviewers are just dead wrong: this is not a country album by any stretch of the imagination. There are maybe two songs that use the musical idioms of country, but that's exactly the point: Susan is incorporating the idioms of country music into her songs; she is not becoming a country singer. There's a big difference. I attribute these comments to people who must want Susan Werner to stay a certain way, always to sound a certain way, to write a certain kind of songs and keep turning them out, as if they have some ownership stake in that future stream of music. But what real music lover could expect that of an artist? What artist could really want to do it? What artist with real talent could stand to standardize her sound? It would be stultifying; her music would rot on the vine. Thank God Susan Werner is willing to grow. I could be wrong, but her recent albums, distributed by major labels, seemed to me as close as she could get herself to "gussying up" her sound to satisfy somebody else's expectations. In contrast, New Nonfiction has no gloss; it is all the things that are great about her art: she is (judging from her songs)funny, highly intelligent, disappointed in life and still immensely hopeful about it, romantic, cynical, sarcastic, gentle, a lover of family and children, a city person who loves rural life and tradition (as a place to come from), etc. That's just a beginning. I don't want Susan Werner to sound a certain way and stay in a certain genre, and I don't think anybody who really loves music as art could want her to do so. She is not a trained monkey. It must be discouraging for someone like her to hear a self-described "fan" say that she has sold out her art to "country." Two of these people actually said here that they regretted buying the new CD and would like to have the money back. That kind of "we're going to take our marbles home" speaks for itself. These aren't fans; they're taskmasters, they have expectations to be met. What I expect is that Susan Werner continues to write songs that are poetry, that she cares about, that they get better and better, and that she keeps moving into new musical territory, pushing me along with her to relish the experience. They won't all be perfect, and I'm sure I won't like some of them. But most of them will be like New Nonfiction: great. I give it four stars only because it's not her masterpiece. I'm sure that's still coming out."

Nice followup to "Time Between Trains"

Debbie Schilling | Indiana | 03/03/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Like all of Susan's CDs, her newest contains a great variety of musical styles and moods. I can pass on the the cover of "Everybody's Talkin'", but I love the rest of the CD, particularly "Stationery", "Shades of Grey" and "Barbed Wire Boys." There is something for every musical taste on this CD!"