Biography
Susan Christie, a folksinger from Philadelphia, once performed with the Highlanders, the city's leading "big-band" folk ensemble during the early 1960s. After studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston she adjusted without difficulty to the stylistic demands of the folk-rock movement as it expanded in the mid-1960s. Her bright and approachable delivery earned her a featured vocal on the 1966 single "I Love Onions," already familiar to viewers of the Captain Kangaroo program. That exposure resulted in a series of demos cut between 1966 and 1968, each an exquisite specimen of acid folk. The prospective label found her material unappealing or simply premature; the songs blended melody with a consistently somber outlook and consisted chiefly of her singular readings of traditional country and folk numbers. One standout was an especially arresting and unsettling interpretation of Stan Jones' "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky." Later attempts to obtain a recording contract yielded no results, after which details of Christie's activities and whereabouts remained unknown for decades. In 2006 B-Music gathered eight of the mid-1960s demos for a CD issue, surfacing her work from an obscurity more complete than that once surrounding Vashti Bunyan and presenting the recordings to listeners two generations removed from those she originally sought to reach, though a comparable New York appearance and press response have yet to materialize.
Albums