Suzy Bogguss never sneaks up on a note, according to her friend and mentor Chet Atkins. But she'll sneak up on you. Until you think about it, you don't appreciate her remarkable endurance in the most volatile decade the country music industry ever has experienced.
Bogguss has an impressive body of work to show for the past ten years. There's an album of finely crafted songs, impeccably sung, for every year except 1995, when she and her husband Doug Crider presented their most perfect creation, a little boy named Ben.
Bogguss maintains an enviable vital career, because of the respect she enjoys as one of the best singers and most versatile entertainers in country music. She plays a wide variety of venues, sometimes as a solo act, other times with a full backup band.
She has passed through that period of craziness that passes for success. She has logged the requisite major career moments, trekking to center stage to pick up CMA and ACM awards (Horizon Award, 1992, Top New Female Vocalist, 1989, respectively). She attended the Grammys as a nominee ("Hopelessly Yours," a vocal collaboration with Lee Greenwood). She has gold and platinum albums and ASCAP awards. She has Top Ten hit records. She hosted a televised awards show, The TNN/Music City News Awards. She appeared on the Tonight Show. Not to mention the ultimate in High Profile Recognition: a slot on one of Mr. Blackwell's Worst Dressed Lists.
More noteworthy in the long run is Bogguss' continual artistic maturation and universality. Her songs have cropped up as theme music for such diverse events as figure skating championships and promotion of the final episode of the TV sitcom, Home Improvement. She has appeared in varied TNN musical specials. She has the credibility as a musician, singer, songwriter, producer, spokesperson, and stage performer.
Now she takes another leap. Since 1986 Bogguss survived numerous restructuring and management team changes at Capitol Records, survived them thanks to a man named George Collier. Collier was her self-appointed advocate for years, even though he worked in the company's Los Angeles office. Later he became the head of Platinum Nashville, and eventually decided to include select country acts on his roster of established popular artists.
Platinum was one of several labels to approach Bogguss when she ended her relationship with Capitol. "George always told me, 'We'll work together again,' and I believed him," Bogguss recalls. "There are several others at Platinum I knew from Capitol in my early years too. When you trust your music to others, it can't all be about selling, it has to be about passion. I wanted somebody who really 'got it' and liked it."
Happily, the team of people who get it and like it include her husband; Bogguss admits to having had anxiety about co-producing with Crider, even though the two have co-written songs for years, "because I'm such a nitpicker," she confesses. "I like the control of the way the music is going."
Crider, who has engineered recordings since he was an 18-year-old Belmont College student, teamed up with Bogguss for her final Capitol project. Working with him she discovered she could free herself from the aspects of perfecting each track, down to the smallest syllable. "I'm not very trusting, " she admits. "Doug is one of the few I'll let finish my vocals. He does it with MY ears after his own."
Bogguss' new CD, her first self-titled project, came to fruition in a "highly planned, but spontaneous way," she says. That apparent contradiction reflects the nature of the unpredictable artist herself. A lifelong free spirit, she married the suitor who promised her health insurance. This time the insurance he offered was his best songs yet, held in safekeeping for the album Suzy knew she'd record one day.
With Suzy Bogguss that day has come. "All they said to me was 'Do what you do.' Well, I don't want to do the same things over and over again. I don't like complacency. You hope you're growing, singing better, with more feeling. And Doug is writing better than ever. So we got to bring it all together." In fact, they brought it all together under their roof. Crider has spent years developing their in-home studio to the highest professional standards. This project comes from a harmonious union of technology and art.
It's also a faithful musical portrait of an immensely talented woman in her prime. "This is exactly where I am today," Bogguss says. "I love these songs and I connect with all of them. That's the key to communication through music, I think. I can't wait to see what kinds of connections we make with the people who hear them."
