Album Notes

Susan Gibson is always happiest on the move. Even though she's settled into a home in the Texas Hill Country, she still puts upwards of 60,000 miles a year on her customized Freightliner van. And her latest trip, to satisfy that travelin' itch, is OuterSpace.

That's the name of Gibson's new recording, which stretches her musical boundaries with its roots-rock sound and is easily the edgiest work she's ever done. The new album also includes a live version of the Gibson-penned "Wide Open Spaces," which Dixie Chicks propelled into one of the all-time best-selling country songs. The album Wide Open Spaces has sold 16 million copies and Gibson sports a tiny chicken foot tattoo to mark its success.

The song is a helpful introduction that immediately sticks with people who know the song but don't necessarily know Gibson.

"The flip side of that coin is that if my songs are like my children, 'Wide Open Spaces' is my professional child who might take care of me in my old age," Gibson says, smiling. "Some of the other songs I have written are like the adolescent adult children who refuse to leave home."

Balancing writing and performing is easy for Gibson, whose live shows draw a steady stream of fans including some who travel miles to see show after show.

"The writing is sincere, and that makes it easy to perform," she says. "Likewise, the fact that I go out and perform these songs and have to look people in the eye keeps the writing sincere. It's one of the more beautiful vicious circles that I know."

Gibson, born in Fridley, Minn., grew up in Amarillo, Texas. She sang in church and school choirs for 15 years until she performed Suzanne Vega's "Gypsy" in the Amarillo High School talent show. Hooked on the response, she learned Vegas' entire catalog and those of the Indigo Girls, Tracy Chapman and Shawn Colvin and began writing her own songs.

Moving to Missoula, Mont., for a stint in forest ranger school, Gibson discovered open-mic nights and song swaps to inspire her passion and open spaces to inspire her writing. It was the birth of her nephew that called Gibson back to Amarillo, where she started a solo career and then joined Amarillo-based pop-rock band The Groobees. They performed and released four albums over five years until May 2001.

Gibson's first solo release, 2002's Chin Up, took her from the East coast to the West, from Boquillas, Mexico to New Foundland, Canada and from the United Kingdom back to the Republic of Texas. She's loading her van with new songs and heading to her next destination, OuterSpace.