With a style she laughingly calls "Tendergrass,” one Tennessee woman charms listeners with a sweetness, sincerity and skill unmatched in traditional folk music circles today.
Folksingers don't get much attention these days. People tend to find the current stream of creative music more compelling than bleak old tales about fallen soldiers, murder and mistaken identity. Yet there can be exquisite beauty in folk music, irresistible to all who stop to listen-- though it takes a special kind of musician to deliver the goods. Susie Coleman cut her creative teeth during the Age of Aquarius, drawn to the music of the era's Flower Children, songs she heard on Hootenanny and The Smothers Brothers, and old tunes she picked up from her mother. She made her living singing in clubs well into her late thirties, and now, at 55, is enjoying repeated success in regional folksinging competitions. She's won ten first place prizes since she began competing in 1996, no small feat considering one of these contests can have 30 or more entrants. Susie's childhood was typical of many musicians; you could always find music around the kitchen table. Raised near Akron, Ohio, her father, Wayne, was a talented accordionist. “We were the Oom-Pah Gang. Dad would haul out that big keyboard and we'd polka all over the backyard! I'd grab my sister and we'd 'Roll Out the Barrel' til we fell down dizzy,” she laughs. The other side of the family hailed from East Tennessee. Susie's mother, Opal, and her Aunt Shirley played guitars and sang what they simply called “hillbilly music” and lively gospel quartet numbers they had picked up from their musical parents. Even as a small child, Susie loved the songs her mother sang and easily memorized the melodies, harmonies and lyrics. "Now that I've been around skilled musicians as an adult, I realize what incredible harmony singers we had in the family," she recalls, grateful for the training and her "good ear". Susie escaped into her mother's old Silvertone when she was ten. A Beatles songbook and an AM transistor radio became her musical allies. She soaked up the music of Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary, Simon & Garfunkle, Ian & Sylvia and Gordon Lightfoot, but the Folk era began to wane in the mid-60s. Susie's attention was drawn to popular music and at eighteen began performing in local nightspots singing Top 40 hits. Ten years of working in diverse styles followed -- rock, disco, pop, swing, each gave greater strength and adaptability to Susie’s phrasing and tone. She moved around a little, to Kentucky and Florida, playing in clubs and lounges, as a single and with small combos. But throughout this time, she would continue to study and learn folk music for her personal enjoyment. A romance with Country Music brought her to Nashville in 1978 where she discovered a new world of great tunes. Here she played more clubs, had the thrill of sharing the stage with Merle Haggard, Marty Robbins, the Gatlin Brothers and other headliners, recorded scores of songwriter demos, and made occasional TV and radio appearances. But no matter where she sang, the same thing would happen — smiles would appear and a hush would fall when Susie opened her throat. People loved her voice. Moreover, they seemed particularly delighted when she played one of those old folk songs. But lack of confidence held Susie back from pursuing a songwriting or recording career. Her family was unsupportive of her choice to be a musician which ultimately led her to believe she had little to offer. Yet she loved making music and still hoped that live performance or singing demos for Music Row publishers would lead somewhere. “A summer-long bus tour as a sideman in 1983 really cured me of longing for the big time, though,” she said. “As much as I loved singing my heart out, the reality of living on the road is what really got to me. I was never so lonely in my life. My gut told me there was no way I could emotionally survive out there.” Discouraged, she laid down her guitar until in 1996 she met Jack Horner, lead singer with The Road to Ruin Ramblers, a traditional Bluegrass band well known in the Nashville area. Their voices blended beautifully. Susie accepted an invitation to join the group, drawn by a sense of connection as she realized that in this framework, she could finally perform those great old tunes her mother sang when she was a little girl. It was as if the Bluegrass “feel” was embedded in her DNA. In 2004, Susie became interested in Old Time Music when she met fiddler Kirk Pickering, who holds the popular weekly Pegram Jam at his home just outside Nashville. She fell in love with both Old Time Music and Pickering, and eventually moved in. Now bitten by the fiddle tune bug, Susie is studying clawhammer banjo, hoping to someday play Old Time in the rollicking style of Uncle Earl and San Francisco's Stairwell Sisters. Susie plays a 1995 Taylor 810 BR performing tunes carefully selected from America’s history. “I weave together songs from the Appalachians, folk songs from the 60s & 70s, and a little traditional Bluegrass,” Susie said. “People have been singing variations of some of these songs for hundreds of years. I just marvel at how long these melodies have been carrying stories. It’s absolutely my favorite music in the world." To date, her winning contest repertoire has included Sweet Betsy From Pike, Black Jack Davy, Darcy Farrow, Little Rosewood Casket, Shady Grove, Pretty Saro, Give My Love to Nellie Jack, The Storms Are On The Ocean, and a few others. Susie is hoping to compete for the first time next year at the Old Time Fiddlers Convention in Galax, VA, the largest singing competition in the region, which presents cash awards to ten entrants -- most contests have only three finalists. "A massive number of people enter," Susie said. "I've heard it takes nearly a full day. And I've heard there's only a single round. One tune. No finals. Uh, that should be challenging enough..." Susie performs periodically as a single, with bassist Tami Roth in The Saggy Bottom Girls, or with her duet partner Jack Horner. She's also a member of the Rude Dogs and the Small Time String Band.
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2007 Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree
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