By:Susan Lin
The woman openly boasts about her talent: "It's not just 'Oh, I happen to play the guitar' or if I just sung. I'm a trained musician. There's a certain virtuoso element to my presentation."
She does, in fact, have a master's degree in voice from Temple University in Philadelphia, and her self-accreditation is on par with reviews in The New York Times and other newspapers across the nation.
The performer also has a strange way of goading people to her performances: "I don't suck," she said. "I don't know how to put it any other way. It's just a good night out." The appeal is so frank, it works.
Folk singer and jazz musician Susan Werner is a complex person with a lot of personality. See her Wednesday night, July 25, at the Brokerage in Bellmore. Werner is performing as part of the midweek acoustic concert series at the night club.
To add to her list of interesting attributes, Werner spent the first 17 years of her life growing up on a farm in rural Iowa. And it was tough.
"Nobody gets a free ride on a farm," she said. Every day, Werner and five siblings split such chores as feeding livestock, baling hay and operating heavy machinery.
Growing up on a farm, Werner said, was a positive experience. She believes her roots are humble, and because she does, "You don't over-cherish your education or your own family background," the musician said.
Werner said her childhood-derived "lack of pretense, and lack of self-importance" makes her more open to the different people she meets during performances, which now span the nation. Currently, Werner lives in Chicago.
Going against popular notions, Werner said that having a sheltered childhood in rural Iowa also contributes to her openness toward people unlike her. "Because you didn't have experiences with different kinds of people, why should you have a negative impression of other people?"
Werner said that in rural areas, it is common for parents to give their youngest daughter piano lessons. Since Werner was the baby girl in her family, and her parents followed tradition, Werner got lessons. She soon took up the guitar as well, and by age 5 performed her first concert: singing and strumming her guitar at a local church.
Now 36, Werner's music might be more sophisticated, but she still concentrates her efforts on singing and playing the guitar and piano. For all her performances, Werner does all three, though an electronic keyboard will take the place of a piano at The Brokerage.
Werner describes her musical style as "bipolar." She names two songs of diverse styles when asked for a representation of her work.
One is "Barbed Wire Boys," a simple, folksy piece about the men she grew up around, "the men of the rural Midwest," she said. The song describes "how strong they are, but also how contained." She calls the song a memoir.
The other song is "Maybe If I Sang Cole Porter," an abstract, instrumental-based song set like a jazz standard. The song imitates the style of Cole Porter. "You wouldn't even know it wasn't Cole Porter until the middle, when I sing 'Maybe if I sang Cole Porter,'" she said. And the song is "a chronicle of the things people do to attract someone to themselves romantically," Werner said.
The styles of the two pieces "go from the more specific lyrics of 'the girl with guitar,' to the much more general, atmospheric feeling of 'a woman at the piano,'" Werner explained.
Werner will be performing for the first time at The Brokerage on Wednesday. Gary Smith, owner of the club, said he decided to take a chance in booking her because she seemed to fit the type of singer they want for their acoustic concert series. "We do original artists that don't have a big band behind them. And most of these acts are great songwriters," Smith said.
He was also impressed with Werner's performance. "Here's a girl that has really good lyrics, and can sing them, and also can play the guitar well."
The Brokerage
Corner of Bellmore Avenue and Merrick Road, Bellmore
(516) 785-8655
8:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 25; $15
