Suzy Thompson - Suzy Sings Siebel' (Volume One)

Artiest/Band: Suzy Thompson Album: Suzy Sings Siebel' (Volume One) Release: 01 August 2025 Label: Self Released Format: CD/LP/DL/Digital Genre: Roots  www.ericandsuzy.com On Suzy Sings Siebel, Suzy Thompson takes ten masterful songs by 1970s singer and songwriter Paul Siebel and makes them her own. Best-known for ‘Louise’, famously recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, and countless others, he wrote many more, most of which are “portrait” songs.............►►►

On Suzy Sings Siebel, Suzy Thompson takes ten masterful songs by 1970s singer and songwriter Paul Siebel and makes them her own. Best-known for ‘Louise’, famously recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, and countless others, he wrote many more, most of which are “portrait” songs. He released two albums on Elektra but suffered from debilitating stage fright, and his songwriting dried up. He retired from music in the 1980s and disappeared.

“I first earned his songs in the mid-1970s,” Thompson says. “They became the soundtrack of my early twenties and of Eric Thompson’s and my courtship. By 1980, I had fallen deep down the traditional music rabbit hole and stopped performing more modern music, but I never forgot those songs. Forty years later, during the pandemic, I found myself returning to them and did a couple of online shows featuring Paul Siebel songs, including one in which I sang his entire first album, Woodsmoke and Oranges.”

“By then, Paul Siebel was in his 80s, in very poor health, and living in rural Maryland. Somehow, friends of his heard about my online concert and arranged for him to watch it (Paul didn’t have a computer or cell phone). The next day, I received an email: ‘Paul loved your concert. He laughed, he cried, he sang along. He wants to call you, please send your phone number.’ Paul and I had four very long, intense phone conversations before he died on April 5, 2022.

“To be able to form a friendship with Paul Siebel and to know that he loved my renditions of his songs, was a dream come true for me. I had long wanted to do an album of his songs and now I finally have, with musical help from some of my most admired musicians including Cindy Cashdollar, John Sebastian, Molly Mason, Jody Stecher (who also produced), Kate Brislin, Bill Evans, Mark Schatz, Michaelle Goerlitz, and of course Eric.”

Paul Siebel’s songs endure as masterpieces of modern songwriting: unforgettable melodies paired with an uncanny instinct for blending poetry, storytelling, and incisive character sketches that are by turns tender, sarcastic, occasionally joyful but more often melancholy and regretful. Bonnie Raitt writes: “Paul Siebel amassed a devoted following among musicians, fans and critics alike. His first two albums were hugely influential.”

Suzy Thompson is a “musician’s musician,” a fiddle and guitar player whose more recent projects have included a landmark blues album with the Texas Sheiks (Geoff Muldaur, Jim Kweskin, Cindy Cashdollar, et al), duets with resonator ukulele and guitar goddess Del Rey, and a recent collaboration with Cajun superstar Ann Savoy. Suzy’s long musical journey began in her teens as accompanist to British singer Frankie Armstrong. In her 20s, she was a founding member of Any Old Time String Band and Blue Flame String Band. She has performed and recorded with banjo players Mac Benford (Backwoods Band) and Bill Evans (Bluegrass Intentions) and Cajun accordion legend Danny Poullard (California Cajun Orchestra).

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