BELLOWS FALLS-In addition to popular movies and live theater, the Bellows Falls Opera House hosts some top-shelf performing artists, including Chris Smither, Jorma Kaukonen, and, soon, country-Americana singer-songwriter Suzy Bogguss.
With 17 studio albums, multiple Grammy and CMA awards for solo work and collaborations, and a four-decade career, the Nashville-based musician will perform here Saturday, Sept. 19.
Charlie Hunter, director of Ray’s the Roof Productions, says he’s really looking forward to Bogguss’s upcoming debut at the venue.
“Suzy Bogguss has an extraordinary voice, [a] great taste in songs, and, I think, is writing the best material of her career,” Hunter told The Commons in an email.
He continued, “Our stage manager, Patrick LeBlanc, recommended her to us after working with her at a festival in Illinois, and so far she and her team have been an absolute pleasure to work with.”
Ray’s the Roof Productions is the live-event production arm of the volunteer nonprofit Rockingham Entertainment Development. Its name honors the memory of Ray Massucco, Bellows Falls lawyer, live music partisan, and longtime organizer of the Roots on the River music festival.
Bogguss made time to speak with The Commons recently while on the road in Texas. The conversation touched on many topics, including her upcoming Vermont tour stop, her newest album, playing at Dollywood, and her recent induction to the Grand Ole Opry. Here’s an excerpt of the conversation:
Victoria Chertok: I’ve been following your career for four decades and saw you at Boston’s Symphony Hall with Chet Atkins in the early 1990s. I went out and bought two of your albums, Aces and Simpatico, and have been a fan ever since.
Suzy Bogguss: Oh, that’s so nice. So you saw me with Chet at Boston — that was so much fun.
V.C.: Yes! We’re excited that you will be at the Bellows Falls Opera House. Have you played in Vermont before?
S.B.: You just have no idea how excited I am to be coming back to Vermont because it has been way too long. Yeah, White River Junction back in 2011.
V.C.: First, I want to congratulate you on being inducted to the Grand Ole Opry in January by Reba McEntire. What was that like?
S.B.: It’s such a wild thing, because I really was not expecting it. So Kathy Mattea and I have been friends for 30-plus years, and Terri [Clark] and I were going to be there to sing with her, and then Trisha [Yearwood] jumped in and surprised her.
And I thought, “That was so sweet.” And so Trisha, Terri, and I began warming up, and we were getting the harmony parts all worked out for “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses.”
And unbeknownst to me, the whole time all this was going on, Kathy and Terri and Trisha knew that Kathy was going to invite me to be a member!
She just gobsmacked me with this, and I really was not expecting it, so I was not cool. I pretty much started crying.
V.C.: Wow! What a story!
S.B.: I’m lucky. I have some amazing girlfriends, and then Reba saying, “Yeah, I would like to induct her.”
All of us have hectic schedules, and so we try to have these get-togethers. The last time we did it at Wynonna [Judd]’s house, and it was Wynonna, Reba, Trisha, Tanya Tucker, Terri, and I.
It’s so amazing to just sit around and talk with a bunch of females who have shared experiences in the business, and it’s really a magical thing to have this secret club.
V.C.: That sounds like so much fun.
S.B.: Yes, it’s really fun. We all have different backgrounds, but so many similar paths, and Dolly [Parton] being our mentor. It’s gonna be a ride, and it’s gonna be really good. And [even] if you have to go around a wall here, or you had to split off on a path for a little while, it’s all just going to be one big, long wonderful ride, and these ladies just have a great attitude.
V.C.: I’ll bet.
S.B.: Most days I just feel like I love my life. I love my job, and I love sharing music with people who love music. I love that feeling that I get from the engagement [with audiences] and from the communication that we have that goes back and forth between us.
V.C.: Let’s talk about your new album, Prayin’ for Sunshine, which was recorded in your home. You sang vocals in your laundry room, and the drummer was in the dining room. You wrote all 10 songs yourself on this one.
S.B.: I enjoy the process of co-writing. For me, anyway, it’s like when you get on a similar vision with somebody else, and you’re moving forward with a story. You’re sharing something that’s pretty intimate, and I really enjoy that process.
V.C.: Does the music come first or the lyrics?
S.B.: Totally depends on the song. I’ve written stuff both ways, especially on this record. I think there were several that my husband and I started while we were just driving in the car.
V.C.: You started playing guitar at age 14, when your sister got married and gave you her guitar. Who were some of your early music influences?
S.B.: She taught me a few chords, and then I had a girlfriend who was taking guitar lessons up in the Quad Cities, and so she would come back from her lessons and teach me what she learned.
There was a town 25 miles away that had a music store, where I could order sheet music. And I’d learn it from The John Denver Songbook.
V.C.: Very cool!
S.B.: Mostly, I was listening to the radio to album-oriented rock, so it was everything from Elton John. I loved him. I think he was one of my big influences. Those melodies and the beautiful stories, and then, of course, John Denver, because I love those chords and everything that was very folkie.
I was very folkie, and I just knew that I could play those songs. When I got to college, I started finding my tribe — the people who like to play guitar and sing and stuff like that. I started playing a lot of Emmylou Harris for the same reason. It was simple enough that I could play it but complicated enough that it was really interesting.
V.C.: What year did you move to Nashville?
S.B.: I moved there on Thanksgiving Day in ’84.
V.C.: You’ve played with so many big names throughout your career and another one of your mentors was Dolly Parton. I heard when she opened Dollywood in 1986, she chose you as the first female opening act. What do you remember from that time?
S.B.: Well, it was wonderful. I mean, Dolly was a killer boss. She was just so good. This was the beginning of the park, and so she was trying to figure out exactly what she wanted to do with the music there.
So there were lots of performers who were bluegrass. It was all about crafts and things like that. They had glass blowers, and they had people who worked with metals. It was more like the old days.
V.C.: What was it like to perform at the opening of Dollywood?
S.B.: I played at the train station four shows during the day, and then I did a show with the staff band at the end of the day. They had a male lead singer as well, and a clown. You know, the comedian guy, and we just had a really great time.
But the thing that was remarkable about Dolly is, first of all, she encouraged us to make music to sell at the park and did not take any percentage of it.
V.C.: Isn’t that something!
S.B.: She also really encouraged us to sing our own music and to make our own show. She didn’t want us to do all covers or do a particular theme. It had to be like our artistry, the kinds of songs that spoke to us, that we could share with people.
It was such a great education. I had really never played with a band with drums and all that before, and it really set me up. And I got my record deal while I was there.
V.C.: With Capitol Records?
S.B.: Yeah. I went for the [record] deal, and I got married, and that year was just incredible. It’s 40 years now.
And here’s another funny thing. I got married in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where I was living, five days after we closed Dollywood for the season.
They let me borrow all of the benches from the park. They put them on a big truck and took them to my little place that I was renting on the river. And my brothers came, and we dug up all the flowers that were going to freeze. We planted them and decorated the whole yard. And they even let me borrow the garbage cans, because I had 200-and-some people come to this little house for the wedding.
V.C.: What a story! I heard about your Suzy’s Soup Night, an annual event for your birthday, which became a cookbook of the same name.
S.B.: Oh, yes, it’s been going on for 16 years. It’s just 50 to 70 people, and I make two giant big old cauldrons of soup. The only year we skipped was the Covid years.
You would love all the people who come to play music for my birthday, like Tommy Emmanuel, Jerry Douglas, and Sam Bush. Those guys sit in my living room and play music. It’s about the best birthday present anybody could ever ask for.
V.C.: So cool. Final question: what do you hope the audience will take away from your show in Bellows Falls?
S.B.: I hope they take away a big smile! I call it a “hootenanny,” because I try to get people to sing along with us and have a good time.
And anybody who’s dragging somebody who really doesn’t want to come? I hope that that person is like the Grinch: to get their heart to grow by three sizes by the time they leave.
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“An Evening with Suzy Bogguss” takes place at the Bellows Falls Opera House, 7 The Square, Bellows Falls, on Saturday, Sept. 19. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and show starts at 7 p.m.
For more information and to buy tickets, visit bellowsfallsoperahouse.com/special-events/, or email raystheroofvt@gmail.com.
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Editor’s note: Stories presented as interviews in this format are edited for clarity, readability, and space. Words not spoken by interview subjects appear in brackets, as do editorial clarifications.
Victoria Chertok has been a contributing writer to The Commons and The Keene Sentinel. Since 2017, she has published more than 250 arts and entertainment features, interviews, and columns in both newspapers, as well as in the Brattleboro Reformer. She now writes from Florida.
This Arts item by Victoria Chertok was written for The Commons.