Oh Susanna

She's about the same age as Hank Williams Sr. was when he died, and she's been written up in Billboard on the strength of a self-produced, seven-song demo cassette. Only 50 copies of the demo were produced. Her music comes "from two places-a love of 1920s and '30s American roots music and a year-long stint as host of a college radio show in Montreal." Oh Susanna was born in Massachusetts and raised in Vancouver, and her real name is Susie Ungerleider.

Reviewers say her voice is excellent and her real strength is in her songwriting.

Elsewhere, she's characterized as having "spent much of the last five years listening to the blues, early country, honky tonk and mountain balladry, and has emerged with a collection of songs which twist traditional folk idioms into tales of personal quest."

The short collection of reviews on Oh Susanna throws around a few names for comparison-Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Appalachian Sarah McLachlan, Hank-but one is left to speculate that if Leon Redbone and k.d. lang were to raise a daughter . . .