Susan Werner Press Release
Arkansas State University's Fowler Center Series
Presents
SUSAN WERNER with Trina Hamlin
Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 2:00 p.m.
Riceland Hall, Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Dr., Jonesboro.
Susan Werner composes skillful songs that effortlessly slide between folk, jazz, and pop, all delivered with sassy wit and classic Midwestern charm. Throughout her expansive career, boundless versatility has emerged as a hallmark of Werner’s talent, and has proven to be a quintessential ingredient of her engrossing musical persona.
Called the empress of the unexpected by NPR, with pockets of humor, wit, heartbreak, incisive social commentary and kick-ass rowdiness, singer-songwriter Susan Werner passionately tells condensed short stories of characters in her recent release Kicking the Beehive. On it she confronts such issues as homelessness, addiction, social alienation and disappointment. “A good song is a good window,” Werner says. “All these songs can let us see outside ourselves. And as a songwriter, the best moments come when I can hold the songs up like a mirror so that people can also see themselves.”
“One of the most innovative songwriters working today.” – Chicago Tribune/p>
Kicking the Beehive is Werner’s follow-up to her 2009 recording, Classics, a compelling pop-meets-classical album of contemporary standards supported by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. “That was a very conservatory project,” Werner says. “There were a lot of string arrangements, and I learned a great deal about arranging and songwriting. But after that, I wanted to do something different.” In a return to her musical roots, Werner decided to embark on a more down-home recording, inspired by her blues pilgrimage in the Mississippi Delta that started in Memphis, went through Clarksdale and led to New Orleans. An Iowan native, she desired to follow the Mississippi River downstream from where she had grown up. “It was perfect for me,” says Werner, who is based in Chicago. “I rented a car, brought a guitar, a pad and a ball point pen with me. I left my computer at home. I wanted to keep it all basic. No high technology. I was thinking that I might have something to say.”
That was an understatement.
Joining Ms. Werner in concert is Trina Hamlin, whose rich and powerful voice reveals a rare confluence of Midwestern innocence, contemplative focus, and raw passion. Also regarded as one of the best harmonica players around, Ms. Hamlin earned a degree in professional music from Berklee College in Boston. She graduated to the club scene in New York City with the band Blue Leaves and has gone on to write and co-produce six albums of her own. In the current climate of “sounds like” artists and “heard it before” lyrics Trina offers an intelligent and refreshing musical experience.
“I have never seen anyone play harmonica like that. Neither has anyone else. Trina is truly one of the most compelling musical performers on the stage today” - Susan Werner
Ticket prices are $30 and $20 for adults; $24 and $16 for ASU faculty and staff; $23 and $15 for senior adults and K-12 students; and $10 and $6 for ASU students.
Tickets for all Fowler Center Series events may be purchased by calling (870) 972-2781 or (888) 278-3267, or online at www.yourfowlercenter.com. On performance evenings, the box office in Fowler Center opens one hour prior to the event.
Visit www.yourfowlercenter.com for additional information or call (870) 972-3471.
