Suzanne Elizabeth Ungerleider, who formerly wrote and performed under the name Oh Susanna, is an American-Canadian

alternative country Alternative country (commonly abbreviated to alt-country; also known as alternative country rock, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative) is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that diffe ...

singer-songwriter from

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, British Columbia.

Career

Ungerleider chose to perform under the name Oh Susanna, alluding to the classic American folk song "

Oh! Susanna "Oh! Susanna" is a folk song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864), first published in 1848. It is among the most popular American songs ever written. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. ...

", rather than her given name as a means of keeping her private and professional lives separate. She initially wanted to be a somewhat theatrical performer. "I had this notion, okay I'm going to try and wear these vintage clothes and I play this old Stella guitar, which is like this mail order guitar that

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

guys used to play," said Ungerleider. She played her first show under the name Oh Susanna at the Railway Club in Vancouver in July 1995, and released her first independent recording, a seven-song EP, in 1997. At approximately this time, she decided to relocate to Toronto after attending

Blue Rodeo Blue Rodeo is a Canadian rock band formed in 1984 in Toronto, Ontario. They have released 16 full-length studio albums, four live recordings, one greatest hits album, and two video/DVDs, along with multiple solo albums, side projects, and colla ...

's Stardust Picnic festival. In 1999, she released her full-length debut, ''Johnstown'', and toured Canada and the United States with fellow musicians

Veda Hille Veda Hille (born August 11, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, keyboardist and tenor guitar player from Vancouver, British Columbia. She writes songs about love and tragedy, as well as about topical British Columbia subjects.. ''The Vue Wee ...

and Kinnie Starr, in what they dubbed the "Scrappy Bitch Tour". At the

19th Genie Awards The 19th Genie Awards were held, by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, on February 4, 1999 to honour Canadian films released in 1998. It marked only the second time in the 1990s, after the 16th Genie Awards in January 1996, that the awar ...

in 1999, she won the

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978), known as the "Etrog Awards" for sculptor ...

for Best Original Song, for her song "River Blue" from the film '' The Fishing Trip''. She has since released eight more albums, ''Sleepy Little Sailor'' (2001), ''Oh Susanna'' (2003), ''Short Stories'' (2007), ''Soon the Birds'' (2011), ''Namedropper'' (2014), ''A Girl in Teen City'' (2017) and ''Decemberly''(2018) a holiday EP with Michael Johnston. Her recordings have featured guest musicians Luke Doucet,

Justin Rutledge Justin John Rutledge (born January 3, 1979) is a Toronto-based Canadian alternative country singer-songwriter signed to Outside Music. Rutledge's musical style is often compared to that of American alt-country singer Ryan Adams. In 2006, Justi ...

, Burke Carroll, Bazil Donovan and

Jim Cuddy James Gordon Cuddy, (born December 2, 1955) is a Canadian singer-songwriter primarily associated with the band Blue Rodeo. Early life and education Cuddy was born in Toronto, Ontario. His mother Jean Cuddy was an English teacher at Monarch P ...

Ruth Moody Ruth Moody is a Canadian soprano singer-songwriter and member of the folk trio the Wailin' Jennys. Moody was born in Australia and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, with her parents Charles and Marcelline, older brother Richard (The Bills) ...

of The Wailin' Jennys, and members of Weeping Tile. Of the inspiration for her songs, Ungerleider has said "A lot of that stuff comes from other people who have told me things. Some of its totally made up". She also says that her Western Canadian upbringing has inspired some of her lyrics. In 2012, Ungerleider announced that she intended to obtain

Canadian citizenship Canadian nationality law details the conditions by which a person is a national of Canada. The primary law governing these regulations is the Citizenship Act, which came into force on February 15, 1977 and is applicable to all provinces and ...

. Plans to begin recording a new album were sidetracked in 2013 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. However, she has undergone treatment for that, and released the album, ''Namedropper'' on October 7, 2014. Her next project ''A Girl in Teen City'' was released in 2017. The album is an autobiographical depiction of herself in her youth "in search of identity, falling in love, getting drunk, having her heart broken, hanging out with friends in bedrooms, basements and parking lots, sneaking into shows in burnt out warehouses, watching the waves, walking home over bridges and railroad tracks in all that endless rain." In 2019, Ungerleider marked the 20th anniversary of her critically acclaimed debut album ''Johnstown'' by releasing a remastered version of the album on

Record Store Day Record Store Day is a semi-annual event established in 2008 to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". Held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November, the day brings together f ...

(April 13). In 2020, she released a deluxe edition reissue of her 2001 album ''Sleepy Little Sailor''. In 2021, she announced that she was retiring the Oh Susanna stage name, after learning more about the complicated racial history of the song "Oh! Susanna".

Personal life

Ungerleider was born in

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence, Massachusetts, Florence and ...

but raised in Vancouver. Her father, Charles, is a professor at Vancouver's

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

. Her mother, Mary, is a documentary film editor In 2019 she moved back to Vancouver where she resides with husband/drummer Cam Giroux and their child who was born in 2005.

Discography

Studio albums

; As Oh Susanna * 1997 – ''Oh Susanna'' ( EP) * 1999 – ''Johnstown'' * 2001 – ''Sleepy Little Sailor'' * 2003 – ''Oh Susanna'' * 2007 – ''Short Stories'' * 2011 – ''Soon the Birds'' * 2014 – ''Namedropper'' * 2017 – ''A Girl in Teen City'' * 2018 – ''Decemberly'' (with Michael Johnston) (EP) ; As Suzie Ungerleider * 2021 – ''My Name Is Suzie Ungerleider''

Contributions

* ''The Fishing Trip'' (

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

) (1998, Mongrel Media) – "River Blue" * '' Maybe This Christmas Too?'' (2003,

Nettwerk Nettwerk Music Group is an independent record label founded in 1984. The Vancouver-based company was created by principals Terry McBride and Mark Jowett as a record label to distribute recordings by the band Moev, but the label expanded in Ca ...

) – " Go Tell It On the Mountain" * '' Great Canadian Song Quest'' (2009, CBC Records/

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

) – "Tough City"

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ungerleider, Suzie American emigrants to Canada Canadian alternative country singers Canadian women singer-songwriters Canadian country singer-songwriters Best Original Song Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners Living people Singer-songwriters from Massachusetts Entertainers from Northampton, Massachusetts Canadian Folk Music Award winners Canadian women country singers 20th-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Canadian women singers Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Canadian singer-songwriters 21st-century Canadian singer-songwriters