A Conversation with Suzy Bogguss  (continued)

PM: I really like the two Greg Barnhill co-writes on the record, the title track and the beautiful "It's Not Going To Happen Today."

SB: I appreciate that. I've done a bunch of shows with Greg, too, and songwriter things, because Kim Carnes and I are really good friends. Kim and Greg have been writing together for years, and have written a lot of hits and wonderful things. And I would always get to these songwriter things, and Greg would be there and he'd be like, "I have a scratchy throat." He'd be like, "Oh, I got to drink some Throat Coat, my throat is all"--then, you know, first song, like in the middle of the song, his voice would open up, and this monster thing would come out and just slay me with this soul.

PM: Incredible pipes.

SB: Oh, my gosh. And he is also a person who really knows how to--like he was reading my mind. I would tell him, you know, "Here is the scene I'm seeing." For instance, "Sweet Danger" was a movie scene. And I just started telling him about this great scene that I saw in the movie Sideways. I was talking about how I loved that feeling that I don't have anymore because I've been married forever--but back when you were considering taking a risk with another person, where it was really like, this really could be love, but it's dangerous, because it could be love, or it could be a one-night-stand. It could be all these different things. Greg and I just got into the conversation.

And while we were talking, both of us were just like blabbing away, and I was just taking notes, words were coming out. And every so often I'd look down at the page and I'd go--we were talking about--and I'm like, "How could this happen, I'm out with my friends, and now I'm sitting over in the corner talking to you"--and here is the first line of the song, "How could this happen"--and then there's that feeling it's just like it's so sweet but it's so dangerous, it's like sweet danger. Okay, "Sweet Danger." And I'm just taking these little notes. And then in the meantime he's riffing on the guitar the whole time, so it's just coming out. And it's one of those two-hour songs where you just look at it afterwards and you go, "Okay, that's done."

[laughter]

PM: Yeah, right. "What do you want to write now?"

SB: Yeah, "What's next?"

PM: And how about the surprising song from Verlon Thompson, "No Good Way To Go." Did he cut that, or where did you hear that?

SB: I wish you could hear his cut.

PM: Totally different?

SB: I don't think it's available, but he needs to make it available, because I don't feel right doing it myself. But he did it very bluegrass.

PM: Wow.

SB: And he has a very strong Oklahoma accent.

PM: Sure.

SB: So it's just him on his guitar, and he's playing up the neck, and he's just wailing on this guitar in a really upbeat kind of bluegrass-y thing. And Pat and Will came over to do preproduction, which is how I always do everything before I cut. I don't like to go into the studio with a demo that has everything already mapped out because you can never beat it. So I like to go in the studio with an acoustic guitar demo, or an acoustic and a piano that's really just the basics. "Let's get the chord progression down, let's figure out how many times we're going to do the verse," that kind of thing, just the basics. And so that's what I took in to Will Lee and those guys. And when Chris Parker and Will Lee got a hold of this version that Will Barrow and Pat Bergeson had done, they just put a bass line and a drum beat to it--

PM: Wow.

SB: --because all it was was just that little piano thing that's going [singing] "bum, bump, bump-a-dum-bom, bom, bom, bompa-dom-bump"--I mean, it could have been "Mission Impossible." You know?

PM: [laughs]

SB: But when they got underneath it with that New York groove, it turned into this other song. And I just kind of went, "I can do that."

PM: Yeah, "Let me at that."

SB: [laughs] It was fun. It was so fun, because it was like playing a part as an actor or something.

PM: So has Verlon heard that version?

SB: He just heard it a couple of days ago. I just got a call from him, he just loves it. He loves the whole record.

PM: He must have been tickled out of his mind.

SB: He laughed his butt off, he said, for a long time. And then afterwards he was like, "That is frickin' so cool!" But his version is killer, too.

PM: No doubt.

SB: I mean, that's the thing, it's such a cool little idea, that self banter, back and forth of like, "I know I can do this"--"No, you can't do this, it's going to be a drag--just don't do it, man, it's going to be terrible."

PM: I can't wait until Peter Cetera hears your version of "If You Leave Me Now." Or has he?

SB: Well, I sent it to him. I don't know if he's heard it or not. I have a friend who is real close with him, so I sent it to him like a month ago.

PM: [laughs] Well, I could go on, but I've taken a lot of your Tuesday, not your interview day. But I really love what you've done on Sweet Danger. And personally, I see what everybody is talking about.

SB: Well, I'm glad that they're talking about it. That makes me so happy. I'm so glad that you felt like it was a comfort zone for you, because I so feel like that. And I feel like it's not like some giant leap when you get into the songs, they're really just songs I would sing, or write, or whatever. I just want people to listen to it enough so that they know--don't try to make it something that already happened, make it something that's happening now.

PM: And I can't wait until sometime in the near future when we get to do a video interview with you, and sit down, maybe you and your guitar, and play a couple of songs, and have another conversation about where it's all at. Thanks for your time, Suzy, very nice to meet you.