The moon was shining down on your first kiss /
Angora sweater between you and bliss
- Little White Lies

was wandering around downtown Vancouver a few years back, checking out the local music stores, in between checking out the local coffee shops, when I came across the then newly released Sleepy Little Sailor by Oh Susanna. Now I know, like books, you shouldn't be swayed by an album cover, even though that's partly its intent, but I was ... it was a simple white case, with a small, centered, very cute picture of a downcast-looking girl ... very classy. I was motivated at least to plug into a listening station, and the music didn't disappoint, a mostly dreamy-styled collection of singer-songwriter-type songs that I'm such an easy mark for - I had to pick it up.

But as enamoured as I was, I lost track after awhile ... it takes special effort to monitor Americana music in the States, oddly enough - good artists tend to be much more popular in Europe. So even though I was way out of the loop, I was excited to learn a few weeks ago that Oh Susanna had released a new record, self-titled, all the way back in September.

Oh Susanna is the stage name of Canadian singer-songwriter Suzie Ungerleider - Oh Susanna is her third full-length album. The album has been doing very well in Europe, by the way, and Canada. Besides the ear for mood and melody, and the literate short-story lyrics, part of that success is due to Oh Susanna's distinctive voice. When her first full-lenth album, Johnston, was released in 1999, Mojo described it as "somewhere between Gillian Welch and a lo-fi country Sinead O'Connor." These days, I might compare it to Neko Case or Maria McKee.

While her prior material was more known for its folk/traditional/gothic roots, Oh Susanna moves forward into bluesy rock territory. There are riffing horns, honky tonk pianos, and a generally overall cheerier atmosphere. The album maintains a good balance of relative rockers ("Carrie Lee", "Little White Lies", "Right By Your Side," a catchy highlight) and more subdued story ballads ("Unknown Land," "The Fall," "The One," another highlight). Also thrown into the mix is the racey, but old-timey "Down By the Quarry" (untie my sash / unlace my dress / kiss my blood-red lips / and my soft white flesh); the almost obligatory Dylan cover "I'll Keep It With Mine"; and the response-to-the-response-to-9/11 funk of "Cain is Rising," which may or may not be a weak point, depending on how politically explicit you like your lyrics.

To be honest, this review started out as a personal thing - the release date for Oh Susanna is a little stale now, but she's one of the few fairly obscure artists that I've discovered and want to tell people about. But I must be precognitive, because Suzie is just now putting together (finally) a US tour, centered, I suspect, around SXSW in March. But more importantly, this includes DC, which suddenly makes this review much more relevant. Oh Susanna deserves to build as much US buzz as she has elsewhere.