The day that little Suzie Ungerleider set out to sea to get discovered by the world, she forgot one small but very important thing: A sail.

Her vessel was definitely seaworthy. Built with slow mournful country jazz that was cut from the same dark woods that Nick Cave and Gillian Welch do wander, it was a sturdy and even attractive craft.

The crew was also one that instilled much confidence. Captain Colin Cripps, who'd previously steered Crash Vegas into similar waters with tremendous success, was at the helm with a steady nerve and a keen eye.

The rest of the hands brought skills that also indicated calm waters for Suzie's craft. Bassist Bazil Donovan came equipped with everything he learned from his days aboard Blue Rodeo, Luke Doucet's fretting fingers were equally as in control, and Bob Packwood's Hammond B3 was always there in the background ready to do whatever was asked of him.

But, alas, it was poor Suzie -- blinded and buoyed perhaps by her acclaimed Johnstown venture -- who sealed Sleepy Little Sailor's fate. The sail -- or, if you prefer, sale -- was hers to pack.

But somewhere in all of the careful planning and charting of courses, she fatefully forgot that to power her positive journey she required something to catch the wind.

Maybe a voice with enough emotive horsepower to propel her to the ends of the Earth. Or perhaps the push of lyrics anchored in the poeticism of universal truths that would pitch her into and through whatever seas lay ahead.

Whatever it was that Suzie aimed to use to take her over the horizon was missing, and in its place an empty mast.

And as everyone knows a ship without a rudder can at least travel in circles or even a long straight line, but a ship without a sail merely sits atop the water going nowhere and taking everyone with it.

Sunday, January 7, 2001

Oh Susanna finds herself up the creek