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Sue
grew up in a big, music-loving family. Her mother played the piano,
her father played baritone ukelele and tenor guitar, all five children
played an instrument, and everyone sang. Sue started on ukelele
at age 8, moved to guitar at 11, and has been singing and playing
ever since. Music heard in her home while growing up included the
Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell,
Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Stan Getz, Bach, and
Rogers and Hammerstein.
The
Youngs moved around, but mainly lived out west- in Seattle, Washington,
Salt Lake City, Utah and in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1977-78,
Sue spent a year in Quito, Ecuador studying at University of New
Mexico's Centro Andino. It was a magical time full of adventure
and learning. She traveled around South America and fell passionately
in love with Latin American music and culture. She began performing
in clubs around this time and continued after returning to the States.
She worked as a solo and in a duo in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. She
also sang with a trio that did folk music of North and South America,
and with Govinda, a jazz-rock fusion band, where her vocal style
was once compared to "Appalachian scat".
In
1985, she moved to Austin, Texas, lured by the vibrant music community
and beautiful living environment. Burned out on playing bars full-time,
she began a series of part-time jobs and soon wound up teaching
Spanish to young children, which she continues to do today. She's
become a storyteller, and has been on the Texas Commission for the
Arts Touring Artist Roster since 1993. She has taken her bilingual
show "Cantos y Cuentos - Songs and Stories of Latin America" to
schools, museums, libraries, festivals and theatres around Texas
and New Mexico, Colorado, Arkansas and Oklahoma. She's released
two cassettes of Spanish language songs for children and is preparing
for a new children's recording, which will include storytelling
as well as music.
The Austin years have seen Sue grow and mature as an artist and
a writer. The Albuquerque Journal calls her "one of the most versatile,
heartfelt singer/songwriters around." She's opened
shows for such luminaries as Lyle Lovett, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Jesse
Winchester and Kenny Rankin. Much of Sue's music in the last few
years has been inspired by the spiritual influences in her life.
She sings in a church in Austin and has performed at churches throughout
Texas and beyond. The Austin Chronicle describes her CD "From the
Mother" as "lush and loving…executed with care and genius… an angelic
voice". Her most recent recording is the new CD release "River of
Life".
Sue continues to live
in Austin with her two beloved cats.
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