Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 3-19-14

There’s something to be said about artists who are only referred to by their first names. Cher. Madonna. Prince. Well, those are all pretty much adopted pseudonyms, but you get the general idea. Which brings me to Susanna. There’s at least a few different singer-songwriters with the first name of Susanna that I can think of off hand, but they all also use their last names for the sake of differentiation. The only one who doesn’t is Norwegian songwriter, vocalist and producer Susanna. She’s been part of or collaborated with a number of different groups over the years, leading to names like Susanna and the Magical Orchestra or Susanna and Ensemble neoN. She has used her last name on occasion when releasing solo work, but Wallumrød isn’t the easiest name to write unless you’re from a Scandinavian country. At this point in her career, she’s going only by Susanna, and that’s good enough. She’s released quite a few albums over the course of the last 10 years, including at least one of starkly reworked covers. In a sense, she’s a kindred spirit to Cat Power in musical style and emotional resonance. She plays piano and sings with a certain fragility, and her compositions can be instrumentally enriched by the people the collaborates with. Listen to her song “Imagine” off her 2012 record Wild Dog to feel the quiet, reverent work she does on her own. Last year’s collaboration with Ensemble neoN titled The Forester brought woodwinds and strings to her trademark sound, which made it more lush and epic in scope. The track “Oh, I Am Stuck” is a good example of that. Next Wednesday, March 26th, Susanna will be performing at Constellation in Chicago. It’s a very rare chance to see her perform live, as she hardly ever plays shows in the U.S. and even on this tour is only doing a handful of dates. She won’t have a full orchestra with her, but will be playing songs from her expansive catalogue and collaborations with just a guitar and drums to accompany her piano. It’s shaping up to be a very intimate and tremendously captivating night, and if you’ll be in town I hope you’ll come out for the show. Tickets are only $15 and you can buy them in advance here. Now then, let’s get to today’s Pick Your Poison. There’s a couple of fun covers in this set, which I’m bringing up only because it just worked out that way, completely not by design. But keep your ears open for tracks from COnfluence, Escapists, Penguins Kill Polar Bears, Pill Wonder, Ryan D White and Straktobeam. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from Black Bananas, Dana Falconberry, Denney and the Jets, Life Without Buildings, Tame Impala and William Tyler.