Mike Schramm

"I can be anything for you, baby," songstress Susan Werner croons on the title track of her latest album, "but I can't be new." She's written twelve original songs that sound like they aren't--they're all in the style of the Great American Songbook, and they sound so familiar that you're sure you've heard them somewhere before, like they were written by Gershwin or Cole Porter. "I've been writing songs like this all along," Werner says. "They didn't have a place on the more guitar-strumming introspective types of CDs. I just set them off to the side, and about three years ago I realized that I had enough of these to do a project."

A project that she'll bring to Davenport's for New Year's Eve this year. "It's certainly going to be a lighthearted kind of night," she promises. "There won't be any navel gazing." Which seems true, because although she can hit a smoky, melancholy note every once in a while, her record definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. "It's fun to write these songs because there's an expectation that there's going to be some little twist. Humor is appreciated in this form," unlike in a lot of other musical worlds, including Werner's own singer-songwriter realm. But "there's a place," she continues, "to acknowledge your experience and laugh at it once or twice. It's a real relief to the songwriter, and I think it's a relief to the audience as well."

She laughs, too, when pressed for an answer on exactly how many instruments she plays. "I play many badly. I play piano and guitar pretty well, I can defend myself on saxophone and flute." All that and more (there's a excellent ukelele tune on the album) will surface on December 31, though "because it's a cabaret, there'll be a lot of this piano type material." There'll also be a few new songs, including one called "Give Me Chicago Any Day" that pays unreserved homage to the place she calls home. "I did manage, 'We got Studs Terkel and Weiner Circle, give me Chicago any day.' Whatever it's worth, it's a unique contribution. I'm so sick of Manhattan songs. I wanted to write a couple songs that spoke for Chicago and sort of called out New York. Let's go at it--let's scuffle!"

So what's Susan Werner's New Year's resolution? "Not to feel guilty about anything ever. That's a plight of most Midwesterners, I think. You oughta, but you didn't, and you shoulda."

(2004-12-21)

Also by Mike Schramm

Play with horses
Inside a castle in the middle of Old Town, banners and shields decorate the walls, and dimly lit corridors lead to a great hall, with rows of wooden counters and seats facing a huge indoor theatre
(2004-12-14)

Game boys
High Voltage Software has finished its new PlayStation 2 game, Duel Masters, based on a Japanese cartoon about card players who fight with demons. Inside one of Red Eye Studio's motion capture studios in Hoffman Estates, they're throwing a wrap party to reward their staff and release the game
(2004-12-07)

Free books
Inside room 206B at the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library, a roomful of people silently pile and box books
(2004-11-17)

Bringing up Baby
Baby Wants Candy is renowned for improvising hour-long musicals based on an audience title suggestion
(2004-11-10)

Entrance polling
(2004-10-27)

about Newcitychicago | about Newcity magazine | advertising | privacy policy | FAQ | employment