I just loved Susan Werner when she played at Kerrville in 2003 - she is a great all-round musician with a stack of interesting, witty songs.
Tonight, in Tom Noe's living room in front of 40+ people, Susan Werner, playing upright piano and an acoustic guitar built by local Texas luthier Chris Jenkins, with no amplification, wowed us all with two electic sets of her own songs. The first set, played mostly at piano, focussed on songs from her most recent CD, "I Can't Be New", which is a collection of songs inspired by 40's songwriters such as Cole Porter. The second set opened with "Long Time Between Trains", and contained more guitar-based songs, finishing up with yet more piano material.
One interesting aside - during the second set she explained that en route from Fort Worth to Wylie on Sunday, she went down to the anti-war demo in Crawford TX, (she said that there were rather fewer people there than she hoped to find). She spent some time there talking to a number of US combat veterans, who had some interesting stories to tell. Many of the veterans, as part of their pre-Iraq training, were taught how to operate oil pipeline equipment well in advance of the commencement of combat operations; a large part of their expected mission was to operate oil industry infrastructure, not fight a war.
In addition to being a great on-stage performer, Susan Werner is bright, sparky and witty offstage - one of the most genuine people I have ever met.