Susan Cattaneo
Medford, Massachusetts, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2008 | SELF
Music
Press
The Berklee songwriting prof displays some serious girl power on her tough and tuneful new album Brave and Wild. - Sarah Rodman - Boston Globe
Every so often, our Fearless Leader sends me an envelope or box of... stuff. We've worked together for almost ten years, so he has some idea of what I like; his guesses are, more often than not, on target. Every so often he sends me a clunker, but most of the time it's pretty near genius.
Put a tally in the genius column with the debut album from Susan Cattaneo, Brave And Wild. I didn't know what to expect from a woman who splits her time between Nashville and teaching songwriting at the Berklee College Of Music, but what I got was a kick-ass heaping helping of country, rock, and just a little blue-eyed soul. Cattaneo's voice is somewhere between 'national treasure' and 'weapon of mass destruction;’ she runs an elegant gauntlet between gently expressive and passionately vibrant. I had trouble believing the same woman sang "Lay Your Heart On Me" and "Red Light Kiss”; both songs, however, were performed with skill and panache.
What really makes Brave And Wild a classic, though, is the songwriting. Cattaneo is a sublime lyricist; she can turn a phrase so that it sticks insistently in your head. The disc’s opener, the bluesy/honky-tonk "Wrecking Ball,” could have been painfully cliché-ridden; instead, Cattaneo's delivery and wording turns the song into one of the best 'dump the bastard' songs ever written. It takes a special talent to sing "My regrets are piling up like your empty beer cans on the porch..." and pull it off. Cattaneo does it without breaking a sweat. She can also handle mid-tempo country rock (the cruising "Love Takes What It Takes") and softer, almost soulful numbers ("Get Back the Longing").
All of this pales, however, when held up to "Just Want To Know That It Mattered." There are few songwriters who can capture wistful nostalgia and growing older with any skill at all; past Dan Fogelberg, Jim Croce, Cheryl Wheeler, and Harry Chapin, the list grows damned thin. Susan Cattaneo belongs on that list with this stark snapshot of singing to a past lover; the line "Does it ever get crowded / When old memories come to call?" sends shivers down my spine.
Look, I could go through this album song by song and tell you why Susan Cattaneo's Brave And Wild is a serious contender for my release of the year, but that would take away time that you could be spending finding this CD, buying it, and being overwhelmed by its greatness. Right out of the box, Susan Cattaneo hits a home run. I look forward to more of her work.
Rating: A
- Duke Edberg - dailyvault.com
The lady can really sing circles around most of today music idols, and the new CD Brave and Wild is a galvanizing collection of original songwriting. - Patriots Ledger
Clearly, the local debut of the year, as this Boston-based singer/songwriter packs a wallop as both writer and performer. Cattaneo treads a kind of Kim Richie path, roots rock with a twang and a solid blues base. “Wrecking Ball,” “Get Back the Longing” and “Can’t Chase a Train” are all fine, moving songs, but the heartbreaking “Whiskey Into Tears” will just simply knock your socks off.
Top 10 records:
1. Bruce Springsteen - Working on A Dream
2. Bob Dylan - Together Through Life
3. U2 - No Line on The Horizon
4. Guy Davis - Sweetheart Like You
5. Susan Cattaneo - Brave and Wild
6. Joel Frahm & Bruce Katz - Project A
7. Various Artists - The Man of Somebody's Dreams: A Tribute to the Songs of Chris Gaffeny
8. Will Hoge - The Wreckage
9. Buckwheat Zydeco - Lay Your Burden Down
10. The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You - Patriots Ledger/Wickedlocal.com
Clearly, the local debut of the year, as this Boston-based singer/songwriter packs a wallop as both writer and performer. Cattaneo treads a kind of Kim Richie path, roots rock with a twang and a solid blues base. “Wrecking Ball,” “Get Back the Longing” and “Can’t Chase a Train” are all fine, moving songs, but the heartbreaking “Whiskey Into Tears” will just simply knock your socks off.
Top 10 records:
1. Bruce Springsteen - Working on A Dream
2. Bob Dylan - Together Through Life
3. U2 - No Line on The Horizon
4. Guy Davis - Sweetheart Like You
5. Susan Cattaneo - Brave and Wild
6. Joel Frahm & Bruce Katz - Project A
7. Various Artists - The Man of Somebody's Dreams: A Tribute to the Songs of Chris Gaffeny
8. Will Hoge - The Wreckage
9. Buckwheat Zydeco - Lay Your Burden Down
10. The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You - Patriots Ledger/Wickedlocal.com
f you enjoy adult pop/rock with meaningful lyrics, you’’ll enjoy this CD
You get the feeling that the songs on BRAVE AND WILD were written over a long period of time all of them highlighted by Susan Cattaneo’s excellent storytelling skills and ability to open up her innermost emotions. This is further enhanced by the fact that Susan, a veteran of the New England music scene, took time off from performing to raising her two children and teaching. This album has a good selection of rocking country, contemporary rock with some soulful ballads and grooving rhythmic songs. She opens strongly with the muscular Wrecking Ball, a bluesy rocker about being let down by the man she loved and taking the demolition route to end it all.
Other highlights include Just Want To Know That It Matters which features meaningful lyrics and a fluid, rocking chorus. Took Away My Sky features a beautiful melody and memorable chorus. Get Back The Longing is a wonderful duet featuring Mark Erelli (who also plays mandolin), and contrasts neatly with Love Takes What It Takes with its banging beat and nice poppy accents. She has utilised the talents of such noted New England players as Duke Levine (guitar), Kevin Barry (guitar, lap steel), Richard Gates (bass), Dave Limina (keyboards), Dave Sholl (sax) and producer Lorne Entress (drums), to give the whole album a live band sound. A heartwarming and uplifting set, characterised by Cattaneo’s
heartfelt lyrics, personal vocal style and intellectual songwriting. - Maverick Magazine, UK
here’s an exuberance of confidence that propels Cattaneo’s music and drives her lyrics causing the tracks to be somewhat irresistible. She’s able to blend gritty semi-confessional bluesy sounds with poetic conversational lyrics that are more attune to a bluegrass album while still holding on to the edge of a pop-rock sound. This eleven track album is all Cattaneo’s songwriting skills with all songs written or co-written by her. Co-writers include Scarlet Keys, Joie Scott, Denny Hemingson and Dean Brown and also features a few big names on the New England music scene. Cattaneo is an artist that has an interesting past ranging from a dual career in NYC where she was a television writer/producer by day and the lead singer in a funk/folk band becoming regular fixtures in clubs like The Bitter End and Kenny’s Castaways. From there, she moved on to Boston’s Berklee College of Music on a vocal talent scholarship. Upon graduation she’s split her time teaching, raising two kids and writing in Nashville. The album is a nice mix of gritty artistic songs with superb songwriting next to a bit of a commercial feel that makes it radio friendly. - Austin Daze
f you enjoy adult pop/rock with meaningful lyrics, you’’ll enjoy this CD
You get the feeling that the songs on BRAVE AND WILD were written over a long period of time all of them highlighted by Susan Cattaneo’s excellent storytelling skills and ability to open up her innermost emotions. This is further enhanced by the fact that Susan, a veteran of the New England music scene, took time off from performing to raising her two children and teaching. This album has a good selection of rocking country, contemporary rock with some soulful ballads and grooving rhythmic songs. She opens strongly with the muscular Wrecking Ball, a bluesy rocker about being let down by the man she loved and taking the demolition route to end it all.
Other highlights include Just Want To Know That It Matters which features meaningful lyrics and a fluid, rocking chorus. Took Away My Sky features a beautiful melody and memorable chorus. Get Back The Longing is a wonderful duet featuring Mark Erelli (who also plays mandolin), and contrasts neatly with Love Takes What It Takes with its banging beat and nice poppy accents. She has utilised the talents of such noted New England players as Duke Levine (guitar), Kevin Barry (guitar, lap steel), Richard Gates (bass), Dave Limina (keyboards), Dave Sholl (sax) and producer Lorne Entress (drums), to give the whole album a live band sound. A heartwarming and uplifting set, characterised by Cattaneo’s
heartfelt lyrics, personal vocal style and intellectual songwriting. - Maverick Magazine, UK
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
SUSAN CATTANEO – (Pronounced kah-TAH-nay-oh)
“Cattaneo has been playing around Boston and its environs for a while, sometimes solo and sometimes with stellar players. She rocks with the best of them and also sings ballads so sweetly and lovingly that it can bring tears to the eyes of those listening” – No Depression
Susan Cattaneo is one of Boston’s most respected singer-songwriters. Respectful of tradition, but not bound by it, Susan blends rock, folk and blues with a healthy dose of country. Call it New England Americana with a twang.
She is a two-time nominee for Best Americana Artist in the Boston Music Awards (2019 and 2018), and she performed and won the 2018 Connecticut Folk Festival. Her latest album The Hammer and The Heart charted #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and yielded a #1 song on folk radio and a top 10 album of 2017. The album reflects her love for collaboration the record features 40 local and national artists including Mark Erelli, The Bottle Rockets, Bill Kirchen, Jennifer Kimball, Dennis Brennan and Jenee Halstead just to name a few.
Over the past three years, she was an Emerging Artist at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and a finalist or winner at some of the country’s most prestigious songwriting and music contests including: Kerrville’s New Folk Contest (2018 and 2015), the Philadelphia Songwriters Project and at the Wildflower Festival Songwriters Contest, the International Acoustic Music Awards, the Independent Music Awards, the 5 Unsigned Only Song Contest, the USA Songwriting Competition, the Mountain Stage New Song Contest and the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest.
Susan has also been teaching songwriting at the Berklee College of Music for over 15 years and performed all over New England with Western Mass trio The Boxcar Lilies.
In the New England area, Susan has won over audiences at venues such as: Club Passim, the Shalin Liu Center, the Me & Thee Coffeehouse, The Iron Horse Music Hall, Tupelo Music Hall, the Calvin Theater, the South Shore Music Circus and the River Club Music Hall.
She has opened for or shared the stage with Bill Kirchen, Jon Cleary, David Wilcox, Rose Cousins, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ellis Paul, Paula Cole, David Wilcox, Huey Lewis and The News, Amy Grant, Melissa Ferrick, and The Pousette-Dart Band.
Band Members
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