Susan Werner ( pictured ) is known for highlighting the eccentricities of the world and the universal quirks of human relationships through music, which could be called folk, jazz, rock or gospel. Her new CD, Classics, partially the basis for her March 7 show at the Old Town School of Folk Music, smoothly gives the classical music treatment to the classic music of the '60s and '70s.
Werner's many voices started with classical opera training. I asked how she grew from that to embrace her current wide range of disciplines. "Disciplines? [ Laughs ] I wouldn't want to call myself disciplined," she said. "But the question is, where do you really start learning music? I was learning guitar at five years old when my brother brought a guitar home. The nuns were teaching guitar. When church let the guitar in, they let the leftists in and that's when the church veered to the left.
"So I started playing at five with Pete Seeger [ 's records ] , and to the hootenanny thing in the background when I was seven or eight. Later, to get scholarships to school ... they were not funding folk, but opera. I studied classical voice. And I like language, am good with it. It is like a puzzle to solve."
Werner said she "loved singing with an orchestra. It is like riding the wildest horse in the world. I can see how people scramble for the rest of their lives to do that. I didn't feel I was born to do it, so I started writing my own songs. That's when people started saying, where have you been? No one said that with opera, so I took it to mean something. My studying of classical works led to ... I'm glad that I had a certain confidence that I could pull this off. I got confidence, too, from my dalliances with woodwind players. And the Argentinean guitarist. The music of people you know well becomes real to you. So there was some of that along the way."
I asked if the 1960s and '70s music was selected for a target audience and if I, as a boomer, was part of that audience?
"One reason to choose music from that era is that it is known to many people, not just boomers," Werner said. "It is familiar to their children. In planning a cover, you think about who knows the music and what it means to them. To be successful, you have to know how well known the songs are and who knows the music. You want to know that the re-inventions will reveal something new.
"When we dared to take on such things as 'Oh, Mercy Mercy Me' or 'Maybe I'm Amazed,' I was scared. We aimed high with this reinvention to reveal something new and for that we had to start by knowing who knew the music and what it meant to them.
"In 1995 or so we all listened to radio and we were in touch with the same music. Now, we have iPods and all have our own soundtracks. I worked hard to find the music that everyone knows, and was surprised how many 20-somethings know Cat Stevens, for instance: 'Oh, my parents listened to that on the car radio!' And so much of it has that formal structure that could be revealed, so many segments. Like 'Hazy Shade of Winter,' good for riffs. Perfect for an oboe. Formal like British … like 300-year-old British."
The Classics CD includes all new arrangements for classical instruments and songs by Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Marvin Gaye, Paul Simon and others.
She expresses the goal of having classical forms in music more widely understood to be accessible, to be available for questions and discussion.
"Some people have the impression that classical is too serious, no humanity," Werner said. "Like fine china not for everyday use. Part of classical is that they perform and they disappear, which is part of its charm. But that's not the case here. In the current show, we talk about music and classical music in an informal way. This show is fun, you don't feel you have to bring cough drops like you do to the symphonies."
About the Old Town show, she says: "I guarantee zero boredom, we don't allow that. Old Town School is a good hall: so close, you could reach out and pull anyone on stage. We'll be doing our own songs, too."
This show promises to broaden, too, the definition of singer/songwriter. Both she and cellist Julia Biber, who will share the stage with her, write and perform and look to new challenges.
"It is so exciting. I'm in over my head, that's the fun of the project. We are pushing boundaries," Werner said. "So many think that songwriting is about self, sort of journaling. It is time to speak not just for yourself and to crack that myth. I invite anyone with preconceived notions of what a singer-songwriter is to come. It will reinvigorate your creativity."
A gay family connection gave me the opening to ask her about her gay following. My brother Dale Albright had conceived and directed My Strange Nation, The Music of Susan Werner last year in San Francisco. Werner's music was staged with five women representing different types of relationships, including lesbian. The universally human themes of her work held up, according to both Albright and Werner.
"That show was such a gift to me," said Werner. "I'm glad that my work has meaning for what he's lived, for what all of us have lived; a world view sound track. I think he and I are both from blue corners of red states ( Ohio and Iowa ) , a small but fierce fraternity of cool in a conservative environment."
About seeing her work staged with a gay and lesbian interpretation:
"It showed me my where the rural Iowa still lurks in me; where I can do better. It was challenging, I was nervous. I couldn't do anything for the songs; the songs had to work on their own. You want songs to work for every type of person, to work every which way.
"When I talk about my gay and lesbian following, I always say that I put the bacon in the GBLT. And when the Q is added, I'm happy. As that gets wider, the world just gets better and better. Also, claiming that B allows me to not have to disavow my relationship with the Argentinean guitarist ... ."
Susan Werner appears with special guest Anais Mitchell Saturday, March 7, at 7 p.m., at the Old Town School of Folk Music. 4544 N Lincoln. Call 773-728-6000 or visit oldtownschool.tix.com .
