The Firehouse Center for the Arts presents: Suzy Bogguss

During the creative explosion of country music in the 1990s Suzy Bogguss sold 4 million records with radio hits like “Outbound Plane”, “Someday Soon”, and “Hey Cinderella.” Her latest offering, Prayin’ For Sunshine, is an Americana tour de force.

She’s a living legend of country music, having earned eight Top 10 hits throughout the 1990s before exploring new influences — including jazz, western swing, and the Bakersfield sound — during the 21st century. From Grammy Award-winning performances to platinum-selling records, Suzy has proudly called her own shots for four decades, earning her stripes as a singer-songwriter, producer, and road warrior along the way.

Recorded at Suzy’s home, her newest, self-written album Prayin’ for Sunshine offers a mix of southern storytelling, gorgeous vocals, and organic instrumentation that showcases her country and Americana roots. It’s an eclectic and emotional project, with Suzy’s sharp songwriting balanced by spontaneous performances from the band. Highlights include “Paint the Town Blue” (a lovely, loping tribute to life in a small town, inspired by her hometown of Aledo, Illinois), “Sunday Birmingham” (a road song that finds Suzy on tour, longing to power down the tour bus and spend more time in the city she just played), and “It All Falls Down To The River” (a swampy, swinging song about the dark side of American history, with gospel harmonies from the McCrary Sisters). “Some of the songs are ‘windshield songs’ where I’d be looking out the window, watching as we toured from one place to another, taking note of what I saw,” she says, “and others are more personal songs about my own experience.”