The DV Faithful might recall back in 2003 when I reviewed a CD by Suzy Bogguss, former country music chart-topper. That was a little CD called Swing, and I liked it. A lot. On that disc, Bogguss was having some fun experimenting with musical forms ranging from traditional country swing to covers of Duke Ellington.
It seems in retrospect Swing, no matter how good it was, was the prologue for the brilliance of Bogguss’ current offering, Sweet Danger. In a phrase, Sweet Danger has utterly blown me away with its cinematic, focused, and emotionally gripping performance. Bogguss has turned in a masterpiece.
Let’s start with the production. Clean, crisp, and warm, Sweet Danger is a warm towel, a hot cup of coffee, coming inside when the weather outside is miserable; but unlike a lot of country music today it’s not overproduced power-chord crap. (Is it just me, or does most modern country music sound like seventies arena rock or late eighties hair rock? If Bruce Fairbairn was still alive, he’d be making a lot of money in
And then we have the songs. One word: sweet. “The Bus Ride,” “In Heaven,” “Chain Lover,” “It’s Not Gonna Happen Today” -- each one is a frozen moment in time, a clear view into someone else’s life and someone else’s heart locked in four minutes of music. Bogguss nails every single track perfectly; there are no weak spots, and if country music had any cojones whatsoever they’d be playing this CD until they wore it out. (They don’t, of course, any more than any other radio genre. Thank the gods for the Internet.)
Sweet Danger is just that. Sweet like the sweet spot, like a perfect swing of the bat; danger in that it may not get any better than this. Perfection is a rare thing; grab it while you can.