This review is by Dave Downs
If you and your angelic sweetie are in the throws of planning that pivotal “Walk Down The Aisle” you’ll want to avoid Track 5 of Susan Elizabeth’s new album, Wine and Cigarettes. In it, as our hero is “silently walking to my doom,” she recalls: “I thought of your name in calligraphy etched on the invitation/ Leaving a hole in my heart in the middle of my celebration… We got married.”
But if you do avoid that little tune, you’ll also miss out on a wonderful album.
With Wine and Cigarettes Susan Elizabeth joins the ranks of the classical troubadours of the broken heart; strong but wounded, battered but still standing. There’s lovely piano work here, in this occasionally jazzy/fast-folky/poppy collection of tales of woe. The acoustic guitar work is catchy and fun. The vocal arrangements and over-dubbing are at times breathtaking.
Susan Elizabeth, though young, does not strain too hard trying to sound like someone else. Her voice, like her words, is honest and hits the mark.
Susan Elizabeth has been around the block. Her previous band, Paige 23, found their songs placed in TV shows like “Ed” and “Medium.” Her bio likens Susan Elizabeth to the acerbic Alanis Morissette>
“One day you woke up wanting more/And I wanted less….”
“The Excitement Before,” a sparse and captivating tune featuring little more than Susan Elizabeth’s voice and a driving acoustic guitar, shows the maturity of a young writer, adroitly describing that all-too-familiar realization that anticipating a life-altering event is sometimes far more memorable than the event itself.
Susan Elizabeth has the most fun in this album with a catchy little thing called, “Jones For This.” Still a tale of woe but with tongue in cheek, it features a wonderful piano, a hip-hop/jazz-hybrid rhythm, a fantastic, if all-too-brief bridge, and very sexy vocals.
Sure, I’d love it if Susan Elizabeth lightened up a bit more. Maybe sing a little ditty about how great everything is. But even if she doesn’t, I’ll still listen. In fact, I can’t wait for more.





Stumble it!
I saw Davey Johnstone with Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour in September 1973. He was hard to miss. With long blonde hair he had an aura of invincibility as he walked his part of the stage, his guitar complementing everything Elton John sang or played until he was called on to pound out a solo of his own.
Everyone who has danced to 1950’s music has heard the rollicking Chantilly Lace with it’s singer belting out the tune as an auctioneer would sell his wares. Disk jockey and songwriter, J.P. Richardson, “The Big Bopper,” rose to national prominence with this anthem and earned him a place on the Winter Dance Party of January-February 1959. This tour also featured Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Dion and the Belmonts. Because he was sick Richardson agreed to pay $36 to fly with Holly rather than suffer through another night on the cold bus. It is now rock-and-roll legend that Richardson died in a crash in an Iowa cornfield with Buddy Holly and Valens.
The 2009 Concerts at Sea aboard the MSC Orchestra was an amazing way to see some of the greatest entertainers in rock history take the stage and, as well, come down and mingle with the audience. A cruise ship adds this dimension because, in reality, the groups have meals, party and lie out in the sun with the guests. This year 750 fans got to meet the rockers, discuss rock and roll history and get autographs, all in a relaxed atmosphere.