"You don't really need to interview the person to understand the music," the sleepy Canadian voice from Portland tells me. I'm sleepy, too, but utterly agree.

Sleepy's a funny word, one which has been used to describe the music of Suzie Ungerleider, who you'd know as Oh Susanna, playing Thursday at the Arden in St. Albert. Sleepy means quiet, delicate, understated and vulnerable. But her lyrics aren't boring. Instead they paint emotional swaths, often morbid, which make you wonder where Ungerleider's mind drifts when no one's paying attention.

There's a tenderness and pathos about Oh Susanna's songs that can really rope you in, like a long leg sticking out from behind a bedroom door. Though weaned on Mick Jagger, Ungerleider found her style worked best pillowy soft, as they say on daytime soap ads.

This interview is without format - we just hop from one idea to the next, first talking about the Minolta her father gave her, which led to five great piles of bordered photographs to be organized at some unknown date. Suzie is smart and, sleepy or not, links the idea of her photography with music. She gets doubles of all her pictures so she can give them out, send them around the tour map, which forces communication, just like music forces you to listen.

"The first time I wrote a real song was probably more than 10 years ago. What's funny is that as soon as I wrote a couple songs I recorded them ... kind of a snapshot. A musician friend and I went into this rehearsal space and there were these microphones set up in all these weird places. We did a couple takes each and he said, "I can't believe how good your singing was but your guitar playing SUCKED."

It's better now, of course. This isn't necessarily proof, but she's getting played on CMT, and even dabbled with acting as a bar singer a la Madonna in Vision Quest, the movie about a panty-sniffing wrestler. This is a Christmas story, so underwear-sniffing will be limited. "CMT's doing a Christmas story. I'm a bad actor, I haven't acted since high school. Fred Eaglesmith is the lead romantic relief. I'm not sure what's going to come out of it."

After touring the States a bit in support of Sleepy Little Sailor, she's heading to England, where, according to several sources, the fixation on roots-based country is as strong as in North America. Go figure. But this brings us back to the nature of interviews and articles. "The problem with America, the articles are always becoming about business. It's not that interesting. I never get any questions about that from Europe. They listen to the albums and respond to the songs. I find it's the writer's job to interpret the music and give their own opinion. The creator of the song doesn't even know the impact of their music half the time. It's the creative process, we put out a riddle and see if anyone can solve it."

My own guess would be that Susanna's on a spiritual hunt, a hard task in a world where religion is often used to justify the drawing of swords. She seems a bit lonely, but that's not necessarily bad. Because, after all, we're all lonely behind our endless walls, together. Explore Oh Susanna in St. Albert's intimate Arden, a properly soft setting for her dreamy portraits.