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FFWD ~ Calgary News / Entertainment Weekly ~ May 2007

Suzie Ungerleider spins a fine yarn.

OH SUSANNA. Short Stories. Outside

After the release of her relatively rockin’ (and very well-received) self-titled album in 2003, Suzie Ungerleider took a break, had a baby, and sat down to write some of the best songs of her career. The title of Ungerleider’s fourth full-length album is deliberate – this collection is literary and dramatic, in many ways recalling her 1999 debut album Johnstown. But where Johnstown was built on a perhaps overly-ambitious theme, Short Stories has a natural flow that demands every ounce of its listener’s attention.

Ungerleider mines some familiar territory and Short Stories possesses that American Gothic feel that her fans have grown to love. Her tales of love, loss and yearning (one stand-out is "Greyhound Bus," told from the perspective of a mother who has given up her child) are utterly engrossing and sung with a delivery that gives them weight beyond the words. Like those in a good book, Ungerleider’s characters linger long after the last notes of each song fade, putting her in a class above your typical troubadour. This woman is a writer – she just happens to sing her stories rather than type them out.

4/5

ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH


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