How many of us, I wonder, were encouraged to explore the works of Susan Alcorn? We did not hear of her as one of the premier pedal steel guitarists. Certainly not the kind of royalty who is deemed fit for a retrospective so early in career cut short by a sudden demise. According her so-called “chance encounter” with the legendary guitarist she turned her eyes like flint towards the pedal steel guitar.
The high and lonesome sound lent itself to the atmosphere of the outgrowth of the country and western swinging bands that emerged from Texas. And by the time Ms, Alcorn the time she was 21, she had not only become immersed in the growing tradition emerging out of the Lone Star State. Yet she was in no position – and shill in no position for a retrospective. Her output is small by any standards. However, her technical prowess is so impressive that she is beginning to gather for herself an impressive library of songs that will fill her own library.
By the time she was in her early twenties, Ms Alcorn – like the near-mythical Jorge Luis Borges has begun to combine the techniques of country-western pedal steel with her own extended techniques to form a personal style influenced by free jazz, avant-garde classical music, Indian ragas, Indigenous traditions, and various folk music of the world. By the early 1990s her music began to show an influence of the holistic and feminist “deep listening” philosophies of Pauline Oliveros.
Though mostly a solo performer, Alcorn collaborated with a growing roster of mighty artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Eugene Chadbourne, Peter Kowald, Chris Cutler, Joe Giardullo, Caroline Kraabel, Ingrid Laubrock, Le Quan Ninh, Josephine Foster, Joe McPhee, Vinny Golia and Ken Vandermark, LaDonna Smith. and Mike Cooper.
These also included Walter Daniels, Ellen Fullman, Jandek, George Burt, Janel Leppin, Michael Formanek, Ellery Eskelin, Fred Frith, Maggie Nicols, Evan Parker, Johanna Varner, Zane Campbell, Mary Halvorson and Bill Embleton and the Severn Run Country Band. This means that Ms Alarcon has put her creative head together with the finest musicians across the country.
She wrote on the subject of music for the UK magazine Resonance and Counterpunch. Her article “The Road the Radio, and the Full Moon “was included in “The Best Music Writing of 2006” published by Da Capo Press.” At the time – and for the rest of her life – Ms Alcorn lived and played music in Houston, and in then Baltimore for the rest of her life.
She married to photographer David Lobato and passed Ms Alcorn died of natural causes at her home in northeast Baltimore on January 31, 2025. Still, at such an early age, she is not ready for a retrospective, although the brilliant producer and leader of Relative Pitch Records may think that she shill need one, and rightfully so,
Ms Alcorn is celebrated for her “volcanic temperament, heartfelt lyricism and a sober sense of complex structures, trained in contemporary chamber music, form the basis of her expressive musicianship. In dramaturgically captivating programmes, she takes her listeners on unpredictable adventures.” And with this line of command Ms Alcorn, fits like a silken glove. into the hard-driving school of that that defined the lyrical flair of the great blues people such as Texas blues is blues music from Texas. As a regional style, its original form was characterized by jazz and swing influences. Later examples are often closer to blues rock and Southern rock. Stevie Ray Vaughan was the most prominent figure in one style of Texas electric blues in the late 20th century. From his weeping-willowy and wail came the crying sort or music, that came to define the grand tradition of Texas blues. This music began to appear in the early 1900s among African Americans who worked in oilfields, ranches and lumber camps. In the 1920s, Blind Lemon Jefferson innovated the style by using jazz-like improvisation and single string accompaniment on a guitar; Jefferson’s influence defined the field and inspired later performers. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, many bluesmen moved to cities including Galveston, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas.
The quote from Heiner Stadler. was from these urban centers that a new wave of popular performers appeared, including slide guitarist and gospel singer Blind Willie Johnson. Future bluesmen such as Lightnin’ Hopkins, Lil’ Son Jackson, and T-Bone Walker were influenced by these developments. Robert Johnson’s two recording sessions both took place in Texas, although he was from Mississippi.
T-Bone Walker relocated to Los Angeles to record his most influential work in the 1940s. His swing-influenced backing and lead guitar sound became an influential part of the electric blues. It was T-Bone Walker, B.B. King once said, who “really started me to want to play the blues. I can still hear T-Bone in my mind today, from that first record I heard, Stormy Monday. He was the first electric guitar player I heard on record. He made me so that I knew I just had to go out and get an electric guitar.” He also influenced Goree Carter, whose Rock Awhile [1949] featured an over-driven electric guitar style and has been cited as a strong contender for the first rock and roll record title.
The state’s R&B recording industry was based in Houston with labels such as Duke/Peacock, which in the 1950s provided a base for artists who would later pursue the electric Texas blues sound, including Johnny Copeland and Albert Collins. Freddie King, a major influence on electric blues, was born in Texas, but moved to Chicago as a teenager. His instrumental number Hide Away [1961], was emulated by British blues artists including Eric Clapton.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s the Texas Blues scene began to flourish, influenced by country music and blues rock, particularly in the clubs of Austin. The diverse style often featured instruments such as keyboards and horns with emphasis on guitar soloing. The most prominent artists to emerge in this era were the brothers Johnny and Edgar Winter, who combined traditional and southern styles. In the 1970s, Jimmie Vaughan formed The Fabulous Thunderbirds and in the 1980s his brother Stevie Ray Vaughan broke through to mainstream success with his virtuoso guitar playing, as did ZZ Top with their brand of Southern rock.
Soon, she began to combine the techniques of country-western pedal steel with her own extended techniques to form a personal style influenced by free jazz, avant-garde classical music, Indian ragas, Indigenous traditions, and various folk music of the world. By the early 1990s her music began to show an influence of the holistic and feminist “deep listening” philosophies of Pauline Oliveros.
Though mostly a solo performer, Alcorn collaborated with numerous artists including Pauline Oliveros, Eugene Chadbourne, Peter Kowald, Chris Cutler, Joe Giardullo, Caroline Kraabel, Ingrid Laubrock, Le Quan Ninh, Josephine Foster, Joe McPhee, Vinny Golia and Ken Vandermark, LaDonna Smith, Mike Cooper, Walter Daniels, Ellen Fullman, Jandek, George Burt, Janel Leppin, Michael Formanek, Ellery Eskelin, Fred Frith, Maggie Nicols, Evan Parker, Johanna Varner, Zane Campbell, Mary Halvorson and Bill Embleton and the Severn Run Country Band.
Deo Gratis…
https://youtu.be/wcT24TcbBBg?si=FuOc32Q-f7ugs9AD
Music – Pedernal – 1. Pedernal; 2. Circular Ruins; 3. R. U. R. 4. Night in Gdansk; 5. Northeast Rising Sun.
Musicians – Susan Alcorn: pedal steel guitar; Michael Feldman: violin; Michael Formanek: contrabass; Mary Halvorson; guitar; Ryan Sawyer: drums; Kevin Reilly: producer.
Released: 2020
Label: Relative Pitch Records
Runtime 41:58 [approximately]
https://youtu.be/hSa_Jo5eh4o?si=nVrAb9Ko2_dYj-nr
Music – Canto – 1. Suite Para Tódos; 2. Canto I ¿Donde Están? 3. Canto II Presente – Sueno de Luña Azul; 4. Canto III Lukax; 5. Mercedes Sosa; 6. El Derecho de Vivir en Paz.
Musicians – Susan Alcorn: pedal steel guitar; Luis “ToTo”: Alvarez: guitar; Claudio “Pajaro” Araya: drums and cuatro; Francisco “Pancho” Araya; charango and quena; Rodrigo Bobadillo: flute, quena, zampoña, guitar and vocals; Amanda Irarrazabel: contrabass and vocals; Danka Villanuava: violin and vocals; Kevin Reilly: producer.
Released: 2023
Label: Relative Pitch Records
Runtime: 43:39 [approximately]