Album Notes

JUST ANNOUNCED! Thanks to CD Baby, this album has won the Just Plain Folks 2006 Music Award for Best Roots Album! Thanks for being a part of this great new wave of awareness, CD Baby!
A native Tennessean, actress, singer and recording artist, Susie Glaze grew up in the shadow of the Grand Ole Opry, learning the craft of country and bluegrass from a short distance by regular immersion of Flatt & Scruggs and Dolly Parton among others. When just 16 she accompanied her brother Rick to Nashville's writers' nights showcases, performing his original folk and country music. New York audiences saw her Broadway debut as she played the role of the young Southern matriarch Mary Jane Wilkes in the original Broadway company of Roger Miller's musical play "Big River." After relocating to Southern California and joining the bluegrass group The Eight Hand String Band, Susie made her recorded debut on their 2000 release "The Simple Truth" and was the winner of the Los Angeles 1999 Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest and Folk Festival for Traditional Singing. In 2002, Susie's debut solo CD "Home On the Hill" reaped praise from Sing Out! and Bluegrass Unlimited magazines. In 2003 Susie appeared alongside Jean Ritchie at the Conner Prairie Living History Museum's White River Folk Festival, and in 2004 Susie premiered her new concert piece "The Appalachian Songs of Jean Ritchie" at Southern California music festivals. Jean Ritchie writes, "Susie Glaze is a fresh young voice...a communicator, to me the most important of qualities in a singer...quite suddenly I know that, with people like this to trust, my music will go on living, and soaring. And so will I."

"Blue Eyed Darlin'" brings Susie's Hilonesome Band together along with great guest musicians including the incredible John "Juke" Logan on harmonica to introduce great new bluegrass/folk songs by native Californian composer Rob Carlson, along with re-interpretations of songs by Gillian Welch, Iris Dement and Appalachian folk ballads from Jean Ritchie ~~ The Hilonesome Band is Steve Rankin on mandolin, Rodger Phillips on banjo, Fred Sanders on bass, Charlie Otte on fiddle as well as Carlson on acoustic and resonator guitar. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY has written "...she can blow the roof off any joint lucky enough to book her." "Blue Eyed Darlin'" brings you gorgeous eclectic blends of Appalachian mountain folk and exciting new bluegrass-inspired originals. "Susie Glaze does something with a song that only great singers can do...she grabs hold of a song's deepest emotion and purpose and wraps it tightly around your soul..." - KCSN Los Angeles