Susan Savia
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Susan Savia

Wilmington, North Carolina, United States | SELF

Wilmington, North Carolina, United States | SELF
Band Folk Acoustic

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Music

Press


"Four Stars (out of five)"

Not many politicians make music, well unless you consider Bill Clinton’s famous sax sessions (that’s sax with an ‘a’ ladies and gents). But Susan Savia ran for the House of Representatives for the state of Pennsylvania under the Green Party umbrella only to eventually sojourn into musical bliss. This folksy compilation of harmonious musings and lullaby lilts has become the debut collection of a lifetime’s worth of music adoration.

Savia has a great website that explains her waltz into the land of folk, but her Buddhist beliefs are truly what set her on a spiritual path, infusing her life with lyrical inspirations. What emerges is a Cosmic Summer Sojourn, a trip through the open spaces of nature. Gentle acoustic playing that you might hear at a trendy coffee house coupled with soothing vocals will lull your senses into the netherworld. I suspect this is Savia’s secret desire, to melt away stresses and put you into a state of mild trance with Cosmic Summer Sojourn.

Savia could best be described as a Jane Siberry type, but not entirely, as her music seems to be a little purer and crisper, with less strumming than Siberry, but more vocal meditations. I found Savia took some risks, like with the song “Under The Stars Tonight”, that came across a little too pitchy, but overall a great debut album with lots of poetic depth.
- Lucid Culture by Kindah Mardam Bey


Discography

Cosmic Summer Sojourn:
A unique full-length artistic project about awakening and the relationship between life and nature on one summer day from early morning to twilight. Sit back, relax and listen to 13 beautiful and unique songs interwoven with the natural sounds of summer through the day. Listen to clips from all songs on www.susansavia.com, being played on independent radio stations around the world, and available at CD Baby and iTunes!

Chill Out: East Coast Version:
"Under the Stars Tonight" appears on a Compilation CD from QuickStar Productions

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Bio

Imagine waking up somewhere in your 50's to realize you have not pursued your one true love in life (as David Byrne sings,"Well... how did I get here?")

After helping others to realize their dreams for 35 years, I concluded the one thing about which I would be most disappointed upon death would be that I had never pursued music as a profession. Chickened out. For endless years sitting at my desk, being barked at continuously by my boss, I used to daydream about being on stage singing, entertaining, playing guitar. So, at the age of 51, I took a leap of faith and never looked back. I'm really glad I did, because I found out -- I'm REALLY good at this! I am an eclectic, professional singer, songwriter and guitarist. My stellar vocal range is 3 ½ octaves, and I can sing in any style. I play guitar the most proficiently, but also play ukulele, harmonica and blues harp, piano and percussion (a little bass). All self taught. And I am a damn fine whistler, too.

I grew up in an Italian family of firefighters in northern Virginia in the 1950's. My mother and older brother played piano, so I jumped up on the piano bench and picked up the piano by ear at age 5 and eventually took a year or two of classical lessons that gave me a great general education on music. I sang in the church choir as a young girl. Then, as a teenager in the 60's and with the help of my first boyfriend who taught me my first three chords, I taught myself guitar at 13 (on my brother's Harmony Guitar). My dad was helping when firefighters extinguished a fire at a local music store and brought home my first classical guitar, a Yamaha. Hey, it was a smoking guitar, nyuk nyuk. Well, I kept on learning and playing and listening to the radio, and as a teenager and young adult performed occasionally at weddings, folk festivals and parties.

Somehow managed to stay out of trouble and graduate from Oakton High School in 1971. Immediately went to work in retail to make some money to go to college (never got there as a student). Worked in a variety of jobs from retail to office staff, secretary, word processor, office manager, temping... Only played music as a hobby and with other friends who played.

Fast forward to 1986, when I moved to Maryland. In order to meet people and make new friends, I joined the Baltimore music scene. I performed solo in Fells Point bars, then joined with another musician, Art Wachter, to create the folk/blues/rock duo, Backseat Drivers. We entertained part-time for 10 years in Maryland, DC, and Virginia. It was a great opportunity to hone my performance and songwriting skills and learn about eclectic music. In 1988, I moved to Pennsylvania, temped for a while and began working full-time at York College of Pennsylvania in 1993. By then, the duo had broken up, sadly, and I reluctantly appeared solo in a few restaurants and coffee houses now and then just to keep up the chops. My personal best was to sing acoustically, without a PA system, in a restaurant for three hours straight!

Now it's 1999, living in southern York County, Pennsylvania, started a relationship with the man who would become my husband. I studied Buddhism, took up birding, created a beautiful garden at my home. Very soon after one of the worst gigs ever, I decided it was finally time to give up music altogether and focus on other things in my new and happy life. I never really expected to return to music.

A vacation to the Big Island of Hawai’i in 2004 inadvertantly changed all that... it was very inspiring, leading to a lot of soul-searching. Upon my return home, I left my full-time job as an Events Coordinator. I was asked by the Green Party to run for the State House of Representatives of Pennsylvania as a Green Party Candidate. I agreed and somehow managed to win 8% of the vote against a long-time incumbent, successfully helping the Green Party maintain party status in Pennsylvania.

Following that adventure, I met with a success counselor. Turns out the counselor was psychic, because her first statement was "tell me about your music". "Nothing to tell," I said. But she must have guessed music still tugged at my heart and network marketing wasn't going to be my cup of tea, so she talked me into going back in to music. So in 2005 at the age of 51, I picked up my guitar and began playing again.

I started experimenting with finger-picked open tunings, writing new songs and rearranging vintage music. (I have a passion for beautiful American and British music from the Victorian era, 1850-1915.) I developed a unique style, borrowing from past influences like Joni Mitchell, Incredible String Band, Nick Drake -- to name a few. And people embraced my new sound when I entertained.

In 2006, I spent 10 months in the studio to produce and record my very first CD, Cosmic Summer Sojourn. It was brilliantly engineered by Rob Ziv (he has produced such greats as Eric Clapton and Celine Dion). Our collaboration culminated in an enchanting aural day