Singer-Songwriter Suzy Bogguss releases her thirteenth studio album later this month. Entitled "Lucky"

 

Singer-Songwriter Suzy Bogguss releases her thirteenth studio album later this month. Entitled "Lucky" it's a collection of songs written by the legendary Merle Haggard. Many people will immediately think it's a tribute album, but Suzy Boggus disagrees and said “I don’t want it to be viewed that way. I had been wanting to make a record based in country and blues and I just kept thinking of great Haggard songs, so it just made sense to quit denying that what I really wanted was to sing an entire album of his songs! I have always looked to great singer/songwriters for material outside of my own. These songs are perfect for me at this time in my life. I didn’t try to imitate Merle, this is my interpretation of his songs,” she continues. “Besides, Merle is still doing his own thing. He’s hard at work, and people are still lining up around the block to see him.”
To provide backing vocals Suzy Bogguss has brought in Jessi Alexander, Matraca Berg, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Gretchen Peters and Jon Randall Stewart - a pretty impressive group.
Obviously the quality of the songwriting is superb - these are great songs from merle Haggard. Rather than doing straight copies Suzy Bogguss has done things her way and I have to say she's done a great job. When you compare the original version of a song to Suzy's version it's clearly the same song, but with subtle changes and a simple arrangement to give a fresh new sound to the song. It certainly helps that she has a beautiful voice that is perfectly suited to these songs.
The songs are mainlyplayed on acoustic guitar but with some lovely electric guitar parts that really add a lot to the songs. It really is a great album to listen to and is definitely one to check out.