BY MICHAEL CHOWNE
Very occasionally an album comes along that stands out as being truly individual and special – Susannah Clegg’s debut album, ‘Good Times Are Coming Our Way’ is one such masterpiece.
Susannah is a young singer-songwriter from Lancaster in the north west of England – I’ve seen her live 7 times now and she always comes across as a talented but very humble young lady and it’s the pure quality of her voice that knocks you sideways in a very good way.
This album, funded by a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, is one of exceptional quality and that beautiful voice has transferred pleasingly well to the recorded format. With an old school, western style of country that is quite unique amongst today’s young female artists, Susannah has spent the time building a team of talented musicians to assist her (Charlie Wells on double bass, Duncan Kilcawley on fiddle and Laurence Kingston on electric guitar complementing Susannah’s own finger-picking acoustic guitar). Josh Clark’s production though always pays homage to the star that is her voice.
We are brought 10 perfectly formed songs, including the singles ‘Prospect Street’, ‘Last To Know Blues’ and the anthemic ‘Colorado’, along with ‘Tess’, those last two also appearing on Susannah’s brilliant 2025 EP ‘The Road Is Only Miles’. Susannah studied Literature at University and has been influenced by Thomas Hardy, with Tess being written about his novel ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’. What a beautifully epic song that is! A modern classic in so many ways.
Susannah, in the main though, writes and performs songs that sound like they could have been written by Johnny Cash in the 50s. She has an uncanny knack of writing somewhat downbeat lyrics but making the songs sound cheerfully upbeat and hopeful. Get out to see her four full band shows in York, Manchester, London and Oxford in early October to launch the album and see for yourself what makes Susannah so special.
https://susannahclegg.com/shows
An exciting young artist who fully deserves to have good times coming her way.