Aledo native comes back for QCSO’s spring pops concert

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By David Burke | Monday, April 30, 2007 3:10 PM CDT | () comments

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Suzy Bogguss sheepishly admits that while growing up in nearby Aledo, Ill., she wasn’t aware the Quad-Cities had a symphony orchestra.

But now that she’s a performer herself, the country music singer said she can’t imagine life without an orchestra.

“I just want to express to people how good it is for your soul to go out and see the symphony play,” she said from her home in Nashville. “It moves you. You don’t even realize how you’re going to come away totally refreshed. It releases the everyday stress, and it’s good for us.”

Bogguss said she realized the value of an orchestra to a community when Nashville almost lost its symphony a few years ago.

“Everybody kind of pitched in and realized what a tragedy it would be if we did lose it,” she said.

The 50-year-old singer will be the guest performer at the first spring pops concert offered by the Quad-City Symphony Orchestra, scheduled May 12 at the RiverCenter/Adler Theatre in Davenport. Bogguss said it may expose people who only know her from country music to the symphony and also cue classical music fans into the work of a somewhat-hometown girl.

“It’s a really enriching experience to go see the symphony,” she said. “And for those getting used to the idea, I can really soften it for them.”

Bogguss is not only being backed up by her band, but also the entire orchestra.

“It’s an interesting thing to hear the two musics meet,” she said. “Those folks who are normally more of the long-haired music lovers are not going to be disappointed, and for the country fans who think the symphony is too strait-laced, they won’t be disappointed, either.”

Bogguss first played with a symphony in 1993 or ’94, about the same time she made her only other appearance at the Adler, as the opening act for a Kenny Rogers concert.

She said playing in front of an orchestra is one of the most enjoyable types of performances she does.

“It’s such a rush to have 60 players, or however many, behind you,” she said. “It’s nice to have a four- or five-piece band, but it’s pretty amazing when you have that behind you.”

The symphonic accompaniment is so amazing, she added, that during a concert a few years ago she was so entranced that she missed her cue to begin singing.

Bogguss said she’ll play about a dozen of the 18 or 19 songs that have been rewritten for symphony charts. Most of the songs are her hits, and several of them are from the “Swing” album she recorded with Asleep at the Wheel in Austin, Texas, a few years ago.

Many of the songs sound similar to her hits, with the exception of “Hey Cinderella,” she said.

“It’s one of the ones I love the most because it’s got all these horns, and they provide the background for the slide guitar. It’s just gigantic,” she said. “It’s like an old Elton John cut or something.”

The same composer who translated her songs into symphony arrangements has done the same for Sir Elton, Linda Ronstadt and others, she said.

“You really get that feeling of big pop records,” she said. “I think most of my records come off really rich because they’re so much bigger. About the largest thing I’ve put on my recordings are steel guitars, so when you get to hear full string arrangements and percussion and timpani, it really makes them huge.”

The symphony has had success with its annual Riverfront and Holiday pops concerts, and a spring pops performance has been discussed for several years, said Mary Ann Tyler of Davenport, a 15-year veteran of the orchestra board of directors who suggested Bogguss as its first performer.

“Suzy Bogguss is a hometown girl, her cause is music education for children — which is one of our missions — and she does have charts and has worked with the Nashville Symphony. It’s kind of a perfect fit,” Tyler said, “plus the fact that she has a gorgeous voice.”

Tyler said the concert was called “Uptown Hoedown” to clearly state that there will be both country music and symphonic works. Also on the program are Aaron Copland’s “Rodeo,” the overture from Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” and “Harvest Home Suite,” which features a guest violinist — fiddle player, if y’all wish — that was written for the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. The orchestra’s musical director, Paul Gambill, is the guest conductor for the symphony.

Bogguss said she was amused by the ad campaign for the concert, which features a rooster and a fiddle, but hopes it sends the right message.

“I want to make sure the audience has got the right thing in mind,” she said. “There definitely will be that — there’s one song that’s got yodels in it — but I also want to make sure people understand across the board it’s a symphony.

“It really does bring the two things together really well.”

A day after her performance, she will take off for England with fellow country singer-songwriters Matraca Berg (who has written Martina McBride’s “Wild Angels,” Deana Carter’s “Strawberry Wine” and Bogguss’ “Hey Cinderella”) and Gretchen Peters (McBride’s “Independence Day,” Andy Griggs’ “If Heaven” and Faith Hill’s “The Secret of Life”). The three will perform 11 concerts in two weeks throughout the United Kingdom, accompanying each other on the “Wine, Women and Song” tour.

Bogguss will release a new album, “Sweet Danger,” on Aug. 28. Like her symphony shows, she said it’s a departure for her.

“I made it in New York, and it sounds like it. It’s not a jazz record, not a country record,” she said. “It’s got that New York sound of the records like Carly Simon or Carole King because the players are all those guys from ‘(Late Night with David) Letterman’ and ‘Saturday Night Live.’ ”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

What: “Uptown Hoedown,” a spring Quad-City Symphony pops concert featuring Suzy Bogguss

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, May 12

Where: RiverCenter/Adler Theatre, downtown Davenport

How much: $42, $32 and $22

Information: (563) 322-0931

Plus: A cocktail buffet before the concert and a post-concert “Party on the Back Forty” will be held in the Great Hall of the RiverCenter. The cost of both events, plus a concert ticket, is $100.