Original folksongs, poetic, strong and lovely. Beauty, peace, redemption, rural life, creeks, rocks, gravel roads, and chickadees. Clear feminine singing, interlaced with gentle guitar. Simple, honest, wholesome.

14 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Gentle, FOLK: Modern Folk



Details:
"Sue (Benson) West plays guitar, sings, and writes songs, finding inspiration in the rural places of Wisconsin."

"She now lives in Wisconsin with her family, where she runs a small business, is a Master Gardener, and raises organic chickens. For four years she has been a member of an old time string band, the Rush River Ramblers. She has performed at New Riverside Cafe, the Phipps Center, Maiden Rock Apples, Common Harvest CSA, Red Wing Farmer's Market, Acoustic Cafe, St. Paul Farmer's Market, Community Homestead, Laura Ingalls Wilder Days, Centerville Methodist Ice Cream Social, Peace Lutheran Church, and the National Solar Energy Tour, as well as at the old "Natural Touch" and "Java Hut" and "Music in the Park" and at the CAB square dance series in River Falls. She was a featured performer this summer in the Phipps Center "What We Need Is Here" series. She won 2nd place in the Pierce County Fair talent show in 2005, and has appeared at open mics and coffee shops from Bayfield to LaCrosse to Madison to Montana. Her new songs have been aired on WPR-Madison "Simply Folk" and on WPR-Eau Claire "Spectrum West."

"Always a poet, guitar player, and folksinger, West began writing songs in the summer of 2006, penning over 60 original pieces. "Wild Fruit" is the first cd, featuring songs about Lake Pepin, railways, local wildlife and scenery, rural community, sustainability, and the Rush River. "Field and Wood: Songs of the Land," the second cd, includes songs about nature, farm life, loggers, threshing, prairie restoration, grandparents, family, healing, and overdevelopment. A third gospel cd, "Wash Me Up On the Shore," will be released soon."

So here's the deal. I have always loved to be outdoors in nature; I have always loved to sit and sing and play my guitar. Somehow these two things came blissfully together for me this summer, and I started writing songs and just couldn't stop. I'd head out to walk the dog, and notice something by the river. Suddenly I'd hear a song to go with it, and I'd run home to work it up on guitar, write down the words, and practice. Next day, I'd head into the recording studio to get it all down. Sometimes I was writing a song a week, sometimes, two, three a day. What a blessing this has been for me, to suddenly have a huge batch of songs to pull from for my enjoyment and for performances! I think the songs grow on a person, the more you listen, the more you hear, kind of like a good book that you can read over and over.

I think they are kind of anti-cool, a little embarassingly retro, like if Kate Wolf or Maybelle had kept writing, so this is partly my gift to them. And to you. There is a message in these songs that I want to give people. And a peace. Like "In the Stillness"

"In the stillness I find, true peace of mind."

These songs are not from me. They are from the water, the birds, the boulders, and the leaves. They are the things I hear when I wade into a cold river, or lay down on the ground and look up at the waving branches of the pines. These places of the land have a voice. Meet with them and be blessed, as well.