Afterwards
The Afterwards (now £5 from www.wovenwheatwhispers.co.uk) was recorded after six years of learning and writing songs. It has on it some traditional favourites: The Blacksmith, The Selkie, John Riley and My Johnny was a Shoemaker/Drousy Maggie. The rest are songs written over the years including settings of Emily Bronte poems, Lullaby and Come the Wind, and some written in a more contemporary style: Flames on the Water, Dancing on Sinking Sand, Your Reflection, Hey You. I watch o'er the Ocean, was written in a traditional style, with recorder accompaniment, to the tune "Queen Jane" (who married King Henry VIII). On the CD Susie plays the 6 and 12 string guitars, descant and treble recorders, clarinet and bodhran. Oh, and sings.
After Afterwards......
New songs were being written regularly written up to 2006, at which point the composition of non-vocal music, and arrangments have taken a precidence. Words however, cannot be held back, and so poems have emerged and can be read on www.susiefox-poetry.co.uk During the post-Afterwards phase, Susie explored a more rhythmic sound using a soft plectrum to drive the songs along. The melody line is still all important, and the words tend to be symbolic, although influenced by personal experience none-the-less. Examples of this style are Indigo Sky and Empty House. Other genres are explored. Jack and Susie thoroughly enjoyed the playing of Kieran Means and Sara Grey, and have adapted Little Red Rocking Chair and Rain and Snow for their repetoire. Susie added dramatic blood thirsty killings to Rain and Snow - the inference as to what happened in the traditional version is made gorily clear in Susie's. And the audience love it.