Susan Levine is a local favorite on the Boston acoustic music scene. She plays such venues as the legendary Club Passim in Harvard Square, The Center for Arts in Natick, Capos in Lowell, the Nameless Coffeehouse, the Press Room in Portsmouth, NH, and the New Song Folk Club. In 2002 Susan was featured as an "emerging artist" at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Hillsdale, New York. In 2004, Susan was named a semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition (2003), a finalist in the Rose Garden Coffeehouse Performing Songwriter Competition, and a finalist in the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival contest in Lyons, Colorado.
Originally from Medford, Massachusetts, Susan grew up singing, but did not pick up the guitar until after college, while pursuing a career in the theatre in New York City. She found that her musical influences were firmly rooted not only in contemporary songwriters like Shawn Colvin, Dar Williams and Lyle Lovett, but also in the more traditional folk and country she heard during her childhood. Thanks to her Dad (a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn), Susan grew up on Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton. After strumming her first chords in New York City, Susan travelled throughout the United States, living, writing and playing music in New Mexico and California before returning to Boston in 1998.
Her songs, informed by her extensive travels, are unique and memorable blends of folk, pop and country, suffused with poetic vision and sung with a distinctive voice described by Richard Fox, of WCUW, 91.3 FM, Worcester, as "flowing and expressive, powerful yet capable of wrapping you up with warmth and tenderness." It is this voice, unique, yet often likened in its grace, range and flexibility to Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Nanci Griffith, that causes audiences to take notice. It is the poetry and heart in the lyrics, and the emotional investment in her performances that cause audiences to really listen and come back for more.
Susan has two records currently available, her debut CD, Scatter Me, was released in November 2001 and Atlas, released September 2007. They can be found at www.cdbaby.com, and the iTunes store.