• Suzy Bogguss with Jim Lauderdale & Sahara Smith
• 8:00pm Seating / 8:30pm Show

Suzy Bogguss is an accomplished and talented force in country music. Her no nonsense songwriting and traditional arrangements have made her fans old and young. Her stella career has seen one platinum and three gold selling records, 6 top ten singles, a Top New Female Vocalist Award from the Academy of Country Music and the critical acclaim that comes from a decades dedicated to her singular talent. Please join us for a great evening as we celebrate her vision. Suzy will be joined by the indomitable Jim Lauderdale, a songwriting bluegrass master and great american poet.

About Suzy Bogguss

As one of the most acclaimed female country singers of the late '80s and '90s, Suzy Bogguss was able to balance country tradition with a contemporary mainstream sensibility, thereby satisfying both audiences and critics. Bogguss was born in Aledo, IL, in 1956, and began singing in her church choir at age five. Encouraged by her parents, she learned piano and drums as a child, and took up guitar as a teenager. While studying art at Illinois State University, she performed in local coffeehouses and clubs, and after graduating in 1980, she hit the road, playing wherever she could find a gig around the Midwest, Northeast, and even parts of Canada. She moved to Nashville in 1985 and worked as a demo singer while playing in clubs by night; she later took a job singing at the Dollywood theme park and sold tapes of her own music, one of which got her signed to Liberty/Capitol when a label executive heard it. Bogguss released her first singles in 1987, and her debut album, "Somewhere Between", appeared the following year. It received hugely positive reviews for blending country's past and present, and featured covers of Patsy Montana's "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" and Merle Haggard's "Somewhere Between," and also produced a decent-sized hit in "Cross My Broken Heart." The 1990 follow-up, "Moment of Truth", took Bogguss in a more polished direction.

1991's gold-selling "Aces", spun off a total of four hit singles: "Someday Soon," "Letting Go," "Outbound Plane," and the title track (the latter three all made the country Top Ten). Bogguss had become a star, and her 1992 follow-up, "Voices in the Wind" -- a more pop-oriented effort -- brought the highest-charting hit of her career in the number two cover of John Hiatt's "Drive South"; it also became her second straight gold album. 1993's "Somethin' Up My Sleeve" gave her two additional Top Five hits in "Just Like the Weather" and "Hey Cinderella." For her next outing, 1994's "Simpatico", Bogguss took something of a left turn, cutting a charmingly low-key album of duets with guitar legend Chet Atkins; she also released a greatest-hits collection that year. Bogguss took a bit of time off to start a family with her husband and songwriting partner, Doug Crider, and returned in 1996 with "Give Me Some Wheels", which proved a not to be generate her previous commercial success. The same was true of 1998's "Nobody Love, Nobody Gets Hurt", and Bogguss subsequently parted ways with Capitol and signed on with the smaller Platinum label.

About Jim Lauderdale

Jim Lauderdale is a multi-talented performer and songwriter, with successes in both country and bluegrass music. His roots stem from the Carolinas, yet his career has taken him all over the United States and abroad, making him an international recording artist with an ever-growing fan base. Jim won "Artist of the Year" and "Song of the Year" at the first "Honors and Awards Show" held by the Americana Music Association in 2002. Subsequently, he has hosted this same show for the last seven years.
 
He is among Nashville's "A" list of songwriters, with songs recorded by artists such as: Patty Loveless, George Jones, The Dixie Chicks, Solomon Burke, Mark Chesnutt, Dave Edmunds, John Mayall, Kathy Mattea, Lee Ann Womack, Gary Allan, Blake Shelton. Vince Gill, and George Strait. He also contributed several songs to the successful soundtrack of the George Strait film, "Pure Country." Not content to just write hits for the stars, he's toured with the likes of Lucinda Williams, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rhonda Vincent and Elvis Costello, among others.

Jim's musical influences include the legendary Dr. Ralph Stanley and George Jones. These influences and his unique sense of melody and lyric help forge a sound that is truly his own. He is a 2 time Grammy winner, winning his first in 2002 with Dr. Ralph Stanley for "Lost in the Lonesome Pines" (Dualtone). His next one came for his second "solo" bluegrass album, "The Bluegrass Diaries" (Yep Roc 2007) at the 50th Grammy Awards! His first CD with Dr. Stanley, "I Feel Like Singing Today" ( Dualtone/Rebel 1999) received a Grammy nomination as did his first solo bluegrass CD titled "Bluegrass"(Yep Roc) from 2006.

ABOUT SAHARA SMITH

Sahara Smith was born into a family of artists in Austin, Texas in 1988.  Sahara showed great promise as a singer/songwriter at the young age of nine when her mother, a writer herself, was astounded by her gifts.

Sahara began performing in Wimberly, Texas, where her family moved years later.  Shortly afterwards, when she was fifteen, she won a nationwide contest to perform on Garrison Keillorʼs PBS Prairie Home Companion where Sahara scored second place in audience applause.  She was also the only artist invited to do a duet with Garrison Keillor.

Now, at twenty-one, Sahara has moved back to Austin and labels and critics are taking notice of her, making her the standout artist at many key Austin music festivals like SXSW and ACL.
Most recently, renowned producer, T-Bone Burnett, has taken an interest in Saharaʼs talent stating that “Sahara is the best young artist I have heard in many years.  The world needs some great young artists.  It is time.”

Subsequently, T-Bone has had Sahara recording in his Los Angeles studio. Michael Ventura, author and columnist, wrote a feature article about Sahara in the Austin Chronicle after seeing her perform at SXSW.  Michael wrote, “Youʼre the most gifted young performer Iʼve seen in 26 years.”

Sahara is a beautiful, elegant singer/songwriter who writes brilliant lyrics far beyond her years and has a voice that is enchanting and spellbinding.