Whether it’s “Simpatico,” “Swing” or “Sweet Danger,” Suzy Bogguss has shown that she isn’t afraid to take risks when it comes to musical styles.
“Usually I make my records with guitar players, but this time I picked a synth player. I feel like I’m risking here but at the same time, it’s still my material. It’s still only the chords that I know.”
Bogguss rode songs such as “Aces,” “Drive South,” “Someday Soon,” “Outbound Plane” and “Letting Go” high on country music charts.
She won the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award in 1992, Album of the Year award in 1994, ASCAP country and pop awards for her songwriting, and in 2005 a Grammy for her contribution to the Best Folk Album, “Beautiful Dreamer: Songs of Stephen Foster.”
The singer co-writes songs with many collaborators.
“For (“Danger”) I was tailoring my co-writing situations with people who I worked with fairly recently … and I live with my favorite songwriter (husband Doug Crider).”
Bogguss recorded “Sweet Danger” in New York City and Nashville. Despite the CD photographs being not the least threatening, there’s a warning label saying, “This music is not what you expect. Listen with an open mind.”
“It’s supposed to be a joke. One of the things people hopefully get out of this music is that there is some tongue-in-cheekiness here. The last album was a swing album and it was very cheeky, with clever lyrics and sassy stuff.”
She calls the new CD’s production “indescribable, a more serious sound, and I wanted to make sure people were getting that there still is some tongue-in-cheek here.
“It’s just that these days, I feel like I don’t want to have to overthink everything. This record is about a particular place and a particular time. I’m not trying to change the world.
“I just took it to New York and it came back with different rhythms and interesting stuff, a different way to use the same old chords,” said the versatile Bogguss.
Recording in New York was a totally different experience.
“In Nashville, we go on the clock. … A typical day here with session guys is at 9 o’clock, the drummer gets there and at 10 o’clock, we have the downbeat and get to it.
“In New York City, we were scheduled to meet about 11 o’clock.
“(Jazz producer and synthesizer) Jason Miles was playing pool and no one else was there. At 2:30 we had the downbeat. I had to let my stomach calm down and relax. We started one song at 1:15 in the morning, the track for ‘Heaven,’ but the session players were there for the duration.”
Bogguss was in the upper echelons of country music for years, but now she’s in a niche without as many spotlights, the same position as many of her peers from the 1990s.
“It’s really been great to go through it together, asking what’s the next step when we’re not on the big roller coaster,” she said. “You want off after awhile. It’s not a bad thing for most of us to play a little bit less than the heavy driving thing.
“I’m grateful for having that ride, but I like it much better when I get to tailor my occupation into my life (rather than) working my life around my music.
“Now I have the best of both worlds. I’m happy with really being able to grow at my own pace. I’m sorry that sometimes I get labeled as having changed that much or gone off the deep end. It’s not true. I still write the same songs, I just happen to take advantage of people that I’m fortunate enough to meet and collaborate with them.
“I don’t want to make the same record over and over again.”
Suzy Bogguss performs Wednesday in Seattle.
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