Broadway actress and singer, award-winning recording artist and critically-acclaimed Bluegrass powerhouse vocalist, Susie Glaze has been called by BLUEGRASS UNLIMITED "...an important voice on the California Bluegrass scene." A native Tennessean, Susie grew up in the shadow of the Grand Ole Opry, learning the craft of country and bluegrass from a short distance by regular immersion of Flatt & Scruggs, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn among others. When just 16 she sang for her brother Rick's writer's nights song showcases in Nashville.

New York audiences saw Susie's Broadway debut when she played the role of the young Southern matriarch Mary Jane Wilkes in the original Broadway company of Roger Miller's musical play "Big River." During her two years with that company, Susie began researching the works of the pioneering artists who developed country, folk and bluegrass music from the early years in America and was led inevitably to the work of The Stanley Brothers, The Carter Family, Bill Monroe, Doc Watson and Jean Ritchie among many others. After relocating to Southern California and joining the bluegrass group The Eight Hand String Band, Susie debuted as a recording artist with the group's 2000 release "The Simple Truth" and was the winner of the Los Angeles 1999 Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest and Folk Festival for Traditional Singing. In 2002, Susie's debut solo CD "Home On the Hill" reaped praise from Sing Out! and Bluegrass Unlimited magazines. The following year Susie appeared alongside Jean Ritchie at the Conner Prairie Living History Museum's White River Folk Festival, and in 2004 Susie premiered her new concert piece "The Appalachian Songs of Jean Ritchie" at Southern California music festivals. The year 2003 also saw the formation of The Hilonesome Band with Susie and her husband, mandolinist Steve Rankin, to debut and showcase the work of Santa Clarita songwriter Rob Carlson. Susie's second solo CD "Blue Eyed Darlin'" was released in July 2005 to praise from Bluegrass Unlimited and Folkworks magazines (their top Bluegrass Album of 2005), and won her the Just Plain Folks 2006 Music Award for Best Roots Album. Her concert/theatre piece: "Singing the Moon Up: The Voice of Jean Ritchie" was a critical success in its debut at The Pennsylvania Centre Stage Company at Penn State University in September 2005, and the live soundtrack album of that piece was released in 2007. Susie has just released her third solo CD project "Green Kentucky Blues" produced by Bluegrass legend Laurie Lewis.

Jean Ritchie writes, "Susie Glaze is a fresh young voice… a communicator, to me the most important of qualities in a singer…quite suddenly I know that, with people like this to trust, my music will go on living, and soaring. And so will I."

From Bluegrass Unlimited: "'Home On The Hill' definitely scores a musical home run and is one of the more significant folk efforts of recent memory." "'Blue Eyed Darlin' is a wonderful collection of contemporary Bluegrass music from an important voice on the California Bluegrass scene."

From Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker: "…she can blow the roof off any joint lucky enough to book her."

From KCSN 88.5 Northridge CA: "Susie Glaze does something with a song that only great singers can do…she grabs hold of a song's deepest emotion and purpose and wraps it tightly around your soul."
 

Please see our "Bookings/Press Kit" page for downloadable Bio and Performance History
 in PDF format.