Country singer Suzy Bogguss chats about new album

NEWTON — Grammy winner Suzy Bogguss has been entertaining audiences for decades. With her latest album she is bringing to life songs that have entertained her.

"I grew up with my dad's carpool listening to country music," she explained. "It just got into my soul and when I first got a car, I got my dad's with all the eight tracks and a canoe tied to the top of it so I was in high school rocking out to Merle Haggard.

"Then I moved to Nashville and my first single was a Merle song called "Somewhere Between" and that was the name of my first album. There have been a lot of tributes done but I didn't want to do that. He's still touring and he has his skills. He's being Merle just fine on his own so I wanted to try and give the songs a different point of view, try a woman's perspective."

The album was financed through the crowd funding website Kickstarter, but this isn't Bogguss' first album made with the help of fans.

"That was really the first site we heard about and that's why I used it," she said. "For other albums people have helped me get money together, even as far back as 1981, before my move to Nashville they were helping. We've been doing our own records for the last 10 years so that is five or six albums on own and the money that we make from sales and iTunes and Amazon goes right back to recording the next one so we thought that this would be a way to get help with promotion and touring expenses as well."

Since fans contributed to this album, it makes for a unique fan response at live shows.

"I think there were almost 1,000 people involved," Bogguss said. "Each one got a t-shirt so it has been a ton of fun to see those at the shows. I played 115 shows last year and was on the road for 200 days so it was really interesting to see where all the people that helped came from. They were all over the country and even in England."

Bogguss will be promoting the album with a show at the Newton Theatre on Sunday, March 29.

"We are a trio of musicians and there will be an acoustic sound, acoustic guitar with a stand up bass," she explained. "It really is an eclectic sound with my '90s radio songs and folk songs from my 2011 album 'American Folk Songbook' and then Merle's stuff which is really fun."

The show is a fun way to spend an evening for fans of many tastes.

"People wanting to hear my radio hits will not be let down. We still do those because they still rock," Bogguss laughed. "If people really want to see a fly by the seat of your pants spontaneous show this is it. We let the audience be a part of it. It's interactive. It's a different show every night."

The Newton Theatre is located at 234 Spring St. in Newton. Tickets start at $29.