Susan Werner

Over the course of her 25-year career, Susan Werner has earned a reputation as “one of the most innovative songwriters working today” (Chicago Tribune). With formidable chops on guitar (she began playing at age five) and piano (she was a guest on NPR’s Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz), along with a graduate degree in voice performance, she puts on shows that are a one-woman master class in musicianship. Although best known as an acoustic songwriter that came up through coffeehouses and folk festivals, the Chicago-based artist has written songs in the style of Gershwin and Cole Porter (“I Can’t Be New,” 2004), gospel music (“The Gospel Truth,” 2007), traditional Cuban son (“An American In Havana,” 2016), and New Orleans junk piano (“NOLA,” 2019). In 2014 she composed the music and lyrics to the musical theater score Bull Durham, The Musical (MGM). Her songs have been recorded by Tom Jones, Michael Feinstein, and Shemekia Copeland.