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The spring season has brought lots of live music to Franklin, including a free Jazz Concert at the Franklin Historical Museum (80 West Central) today at 3PM featuring the music of Ellington and on May 17, also at 3PM, is the return of the Live Arts String Quartet.
In between, the multi-talented Susan Werner, pictured above, will grace the stage of the Circle of Friends Coffee House at the First Universalist Meeting House on Saturday, May 9th, at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $30 and doors open at 7:00 pm.
Over the course of her twenty five year career, Werner has earned a reputation as “one of the most innovative songwriters working today” (Chicago Tribune). With formidable chops on guitar (she began playing at age 5) and piano (she was a guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz), along with a graduate degree in voice performance, her shows are a one-woman master class in musicianship.
Although best known as an acoustic songwriter that came up through coffeehouses and folk festivals, the Chicago-based artist has written songs in the style of Gershwin and Cole Porter (I Can’t Be New, 2004), gospel music (The Gospel Truth, 2007), traditional Cuban “son” (An American In Havana, 2016), and New Orleans junk piano (NOLA, 2019). In 2014 she composed the music and lyrics to the musical theater score Bull Durham, The Musical (MGM). Her songs have been recorded by Tom Jones, Michael Feinstein, and Shemekia Copeland, and her latest recording of originals, The Birds of Florida, took flight in 2022.
