News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Acclaimed country singer and songwriter Suzy Bogguss will take the stage at The Belfry on Friday, February 21. The Sisters show is a stop on a national tour of Bogguss' new CD "Lucky," a stunning collection of Merle Haggard songs.
Bogguss is adamant that she did not create a tribute album, but an interpretation of songs that remain as vital and relevant as ever.
"His songs are so important," she told The Nugget. "We tend to take some of our most iconic people for granted."
While Haggard is known as a hard-living troubadour, with a song catalog spiked with truculent anthems and defiant drinking songs, Haggard is also a songwriter of extraordinary emotional range and sensitivity.
"He has this ability to be this tough guy, but he's really in touch with feelings," Bogguss said.
Bogguss explores both sides of Haggard's songwriting, with takes on the fugitive ballad "The Running Kind" and "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink" alongside "Today I Started Loving You Again" and a heart-wrenching version of "Sing Me Back Home."
Haggard is masterful at setting a scene, telling a story and defining a character in just a few words.
"Every song I had a movie playing in my head," Bogguss said. "I had every scene playing when I did them."
Many artists cover other people's songs - a few are genuine interpreters of songs; their version becomes their own and often definitive. Bogguss is one of these.
For her, the key to a successful interpretation is getting inside a song like a skilled actor gets inside a part. You can't fake it.
"If I have any question that I'm not being genuine in my feelings, it's on that tape," she said. "You can hear it: She's just not feeling it."
"Feeling it" was no problem with the Haggard songs.
"Melodically, he and I are very kindred," she said. "I love his melodies. He writes like I would write - if I could write that good."
In her own songwriting, Bogguss is a collaborator.
"I'm very much a person who writes a verse and chorus and says, 'Now what?'" she said. "That's when I call in my husband (Doug Crider) or (songwriter) Matraca Berg ... I'm really a co-writer."
The music industry has changed fundamentally since Bogguss broke big in Nashville in the early 1990s. While she's eternally grateful to Capitol Records for helping her establish a name she can tour on to this day, the downsizing of the music machine is not a problem for the singer.
"It didn't shock me; it didn't hurt my world," she said.
To pinch a line from Haggard, she's "right back where she's really always been." Bogguss started out a troubadour, on her own, on the road in a camper, and she's comfortable working the road in a similar fashion today.
She makes her own decisions and has plenty of creative freedom.
"I like being in charge of my own life, my own music, my own tour," she said.
There's no pressure to record on a schedule for commercial purposes.
"I much prefer being creatively struck by an idea and following it," she said.
The Belfry show marks a return to Sisters for Bogguss, who was last here with Kim Carnes for a Sisters Starry Nights performance.
"We're so excited to come back to Sisters," she said.
The show will feature Charlie Chadwick on bass and Chris Scruggs on steel guitar and guitar.
"We do a pretty rock-and-roll show," Bogguss said.
For more information and advance tickets, visit www.belfryevents.com.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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