Suzie Vinnick – 33 Stars

1. Something So Sweet
2. Drive Fast
3. The Storm
4. Affairs Of The Heart
5. I’m On The Edge
6. More Than Missing You
7. Picture In A Frame
8. Rock And Roll
9. 33 Stars
10. He Hands That Rock Your Cradle
11. I Need A Cowboy
12. Hanging Out In Heaven
13. All That I Ask For

Something So Sweet

Written by: Suzie Vinnick/Debra Alexander Nesbitt

Wish I could tell you goodbye
Let you go when I cry
Like a rose in the snow
Our love got frozen, but
Oh we had something so sweet

Wish I could find love again
Let my world start to spin
But I’m fixed in a frame
Keeping from changing, ’cause
Oh we had something so sweet

Afraid to lose what I’ve lost already
I’m saving all that I can
I need to know I can hold those memories
‘Cause now they’re all that I have

One day I’ll learn to let go
Turn a leaf I suppose
When someone I meet
Gets me believing that
We could have something so sweet

But that’s down the line
Meanwhile I’m sighin’
Oh we had something
Wish I had something
Oh we had something so sweet

Musicians:

SV – vocal
Kevin Breit – electric & ambient guitar
George Koller – acoustic Bass
Mark Mariash – drums

Drive Fast

Written by: Suzie Vinnick/Kevin Carignan

Always in a hurry to get nowhere
Always in a hurry ’cause I’m late
Always lookin’ to the next set of lights
Never seeing what’s right in front of me

I drive fast and drive past, and miss the little things, I drive fast

My friends say that my life is passing by me
That I’m quickly speeding to a dead end
Feel like I’m running across a floor of scattered marbles
Wondering when and where I’m gonna crash

I could lose my license; I could lose my house and car
Better make a u-turn, I don’t wanna go that far…

I take the long way home and see the sights now
Roll the window down and feel the breeze
Had a little chat with Mrs. Jackson
This is how my life is supposed to be

I drove fast and drove past
And missed the little things I really needed to see
I drive slow Cause I know
I need to see the little things (see the little things)
See the little things (see the little things)
Need to see the little things

I drive slow, cause I know, I need to, drive slow

Musicians:

SV – vocals and acoustic guitar
Kevin Breit – mandola
Gary Craig – drums
Danny Greenspoon – dobro
George Koller – acoustic bass
Cindy Church – BG vocals
Gwen Swick – BG vocals

The Storm

Written by: McTaggart/Fleming/Cawley

I got up this morning, last night running through my head
Popped a couple of aspirin, without a sound we got dressed
I can’t believe how we hurt the ones we love
Before you know it push comes to shove

I know we don’t mean it but words are hard to stop
The strain we’ve been under takes all the love we got
We all get angry, sometimes that’s what we need
But that alone ain’t gonna set us free

Don’t look at me to ease your demons
Don’t wanna fight with you no more
Hurts too bad for no good reason
I want to be the shelter and not The Storm

I’ll make us some coffee; don’t have to say a word
Just know that I’m sorry baby I’ve got a lot to learn
I pray to God to help me hold my tongue
Cause it’s good for nothing if it ain’t love

I won’t look at you to ease my demons
I don’t want to fight with you no more
It hurts too bad for no good reason
I want to be the shelter and not the storm
I want to be the shelter and not the storm

Come in from the rain
That’s what love is for
I want to be the shelter
Shelter, not the storm

Don’t look at me to ease your demons
Don’t want to fight with you no more
Hurts too bad for no good reason
I want to be the shelter and not the storm
Hurts too bad for no good reason
I want to be the shelter and not the storm

Musicians:

SV – vocal
Kevin Breit – electric guitar
Gary Craig – drums
John Dymond – bass guitar
Kim Ratcliffe – acoustic & classical guitars

Affairs Of The Heart

Written by: Kirk Lorange

The saying you live and learn does not apply
Where loving is concerned, we’re flying blind
There’s no rules and all’s fair
It’s a cold, cruel world out there

I should have known from the beginning
I should have known from the start…
Now that it’s over, I’m still none the wiser
In these affairs of the heart

She used to say that she’d been sent for me
She used to say that we were meant to be
But time stole the limelight
When all is said, in hindsight

I should have known from the beginning
I should have known from the start
Now that it’s over,
I’m still none the wiser
In these affairs of the heart

Musicians:

SV – vocal
Gary Breit – organ
Gary Craig – drums
George Koller – acoustic bass
Colin Linden – electric guitar
Kim Ratcliffe – acoustic guitar

I’m On The Edge

Written by: Roy Forbes

I’m on the edge I’m on the edge
Yeah, I’m feelin’ kinda lovesick; I gotta get home to you
I’m on the edge I’m on the edge
Yeah, I’m feelin’ kinda lovesick; I gotta get home to you

Let me tell you, now you’re my heart’s desire
I’ve been hummin’ that tune about a fever like Peggy Lee
My thermometer’s crusin’ higher and higher
I’m in a mixed up state I gotta get straight
Instead of like a cat up a tree

I’m on the edge I’m on the edge
Yeah, I’m feelin’ kinda lovesick; I gotta get home to you
I’m on the edge I’m on the edge
Yeah, I’m feelin’ kinda lovesick; I gotta get home to you

Well you know I’ve been travelin’ much too long
I’ve been burning up the wires on the telephone day and night
Now I’m gonna sing one more doggone song
Then I’m headed fo the gate, I got a heavy date
I don’t wanna miss my flight

I’m on the edge I’m on the edge
Yeah, I’m feeling’ kinda lovesick, I gotta get home to you
I’m on the edge I’m on the edge
Yeah, I’m feeling’ kinda lovesick, I gotta get home to you

Musicians:

SV – vocals
Richard Bell – piano
Kevin Breit – electric guitar
Gary Craig – drums
John Dymond – bass guitar
Danny Greenspoon – acoustic high-string guitar
Kim Ratcliffe – acoustic guitar

More Than Missing You

Written by: Margot Glatt/Eddie Bullen

We had one night, alone together, and on that night the world lay still
When I close my eyes, I still remember, each word you whispered, I always will

You said our love would last forever, you said our love would survive all time
In my soul I know you spoke sincerely, I hear your voice echo in my mind

I’m more than missing you (Every day in everything I do)
I’m more than missing you (In every way I know our love was true)
I’m more than missing you (I got my reasons for crying too)
I’m more than missing you (Can’t help it but I’m missing you)

Now in my dreams you are my hero, and in my dreams our love lives on
I feel you close, I feel you near me, I feel you here even though you’re gone

Goodbye my love, goodbye my angel
Give me strength give me hope
Give me some kind of sign to believe in

As time moves on your spirit lingers, as time moves on then so must I
My heart is full of our sweet memories, and it’s so hard, I must say goodbye

Musicians:

SV – vocals
Gary Breit – organ
Kevi Breit – electric guitar & banjo
Gary Craig – drums & loop
John Dymond – bass guitar
Kim Ratcliffe – electric guitar

Picture In A Frame

Written by: Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan
Published By: Jalma Music

Sun come up it was blue and gold
Sun come up it was blue and gold
Sun come up it was blue and gold
Ever since I put your picture in a frame

I come calling in my Sunday best
I come calling in my Sunday best
I come calling in my Sunday best
Ever since I put your picture in a frame

I’m gonna love you till the wheels come off
Oh yea

I love you baby and I always will
I love you baby and I always will
I love you baby and I always will
Ever since I put your picture in a frame

Musicians:

SV – vocal
Kevin Breit – National steel guitar
George Koller – acoustic bass
Mark Mariash – drums

Rock And Roll

Written by: Page/Plant/Bonham/Jones

It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled
It’s been a long time since I did the stroll
Let me get it back, let me get it back, let me get it back
Baby where I come from
It’s been a long time, been a long time, been a long
Lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time

It’s been a long time since the book of love
Can’t count the tears of a life with no love
Carry me back, carry me back, carry me back
Baby where I come from
It’s been a long time, been a long time, been a long
Lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time

Seems so long since we walked in the moonlight
Making vows that just can’t work right
Open your arms, opens your arms, open your arms
Baby, let my love come running in
It’s been a long time, been a long time
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time

Musicians:

SV – vocals & acoustic guitar
Richard Bell – organ
Kevin Breit – mandolin
George Koller – acoustic bass
Mark Mariash – drums

33 Stars

Written by: Suzie Vinnick/Kristi Magraw

33 stars in tonight’s sky, one for each year you were alive
You left this place to visit them yourself

I remember how you made me laugh, when I’d just survived another crash
You could fix my heart, and make it shine again

The phone was ringing, my eyes were stinging
I called a thousand times
Now the night is calling, and stars are falling
They fill the void in me
33 stars

We used to drive through the countryside; we’d stop the car and look up high
4am a star-filled sky, little lights of hope

Then you decided you couldn’t stay I was too late to call and say
Don’t go…I haven’t thanked you yet

If my sky should ever turn black
Give me three signs to turn me back…

33 stars in tonight’s sky One for each year you were alive
In the Milky Way, I can see you there…

Musicians:

SV – vocal & acoustic guitar
Kevin Breit – electric guitar
George Killer – acoustic bass
Mark Mariash – drums

He Hands That Rock Your Cradle

Written by: Les Smith and Kristi Magraw

I love to watch you sleeping
So just close your baby blues
When you’re dreamin’ in a world of peace
Nothing can worry you
Though it seems you born only yesterday
By tomorrow you could spread your wings and soar
When the hands that rock your cradle can’t hold you anymore

Some days I’ll walk on water
And be your superman
But if I should ever fall from grace
Please take me as I am
And reach out for me in your hour of need
Don’t walk away forevermore
When the hands that rock your cradle can’t hold you anymore

My heart is always open
If the nights are closing in upon you
I’ll fix you if you’re broken
I’ll even move the moon if you need me to

If the backstreets of temptation try to take you in
Or the devil’s politicians claim to be your friends
I hope your childhood innocence can out live any demons at your door
When the hands that rock your cradle can’t hold you anymore

Musicians:

SV – vocal & acoustic guitar
Kevin Breit – electric & acoustic guitar
Gary Craig – drums
John Dymond – bass guitar

I Need A Cowboy

Written by: Sherwood Lumsden/Al Bragg

I need a cowboy who can teach me to two step
Show me moves that I won’t forget
Twist and twirl in a whirl of joy
I need a cowboy, boy oh boy

City boys are distracted, too much on their minds
Faxing deals from automobiles, two payments behind
But a cowboy don’t own nothing, except sun and stars and sky
When a cowboy kisses you on the lips, he looks you in the eye

I need a cowboy who can teach me to two step
Show me moves that I won’t forget
Twist and twirl in a whirl of joy
I need a cowboy, boy oh boy

He might be in Montana, or that rodeo in Calgary
Where ropes and wranglers go dancin’, a cowboy waits for me
He’ll smell like sage and leather, be long and lean and tan
Take off his hat, and hold out his arm, could I have this dance, m’am?

I need a cowboy who can teach me to two step
Show me moves that I won’t forget
Twist and twirl in a whirl of joy
I need a cowboy, boy oh boy

Musicians:

SV – vocal & acoustic guitar
Richard Bell – accordion
Kevin Breit – mandolin
Gary Craig – drums
John Dymond – electric bass
Danny Greenspoon – dobro
Cindy Church – BG vocals
Gwen Swick – BG vocals

Hanging Out In Heaven

Written by: Vinnick/Carignan/Bishop

It didn’t seem to me that star shine spoke to me
But since it seems to be I’ll listen

I wonder what you’re doing when you’re hanging out in heaven
I wonder what you’re doing when you’re hanging out in heaven

I’m sure I heard the clouds laugh today
And yesterday the treetops talked and swayed
Like old friends

I wonder what you’re doing when you’re hanging out in heaven
I wonder what you’re doing when you’re hanging out in heaven

I sat beneath a tree, some birds came by
Chattering like gamblers then off to fly
To win

You’re getting word to me, across the worlds to me
I can hear you clearly, if I listen
It seems that every noise reminds me of your voice
You can hear me too, I’m wishing

I wonder what you’re doing, when you’re hanging out in heaven
I wonder what you’re doing, when you’re hanging out in heaven

In the evening I looked up into the sky
And when I saw a shooting star go by
I smiled

You’re getting word to me across the worlds to me
I can hear you clearly, if I listen
It seems that every noise reminds me of your voice
You can hear me too, I’m wishing

Maybe I cried too many tears
I only know what I couldn’t hear
Maybe I cried too many tears
Then I felt a little breeze and heard you whisper in my ear “I’m here”

I wonder what you’re doing
I wonder what you’re doing
I wonder what you’re doing
I wonder what you’re doing

Musicians:

SV – vocal & acoustic guitar
Kevin Breit – electric guitar
George Koller – fretless bass
Gary Craig – drums
Cindy Church – BG vocals
Gwen Swick – BG vocals

All That I Ask For

Written by: Vinnick/K. Magraw/S. Lister

The sheets that we lie in are tangled with doubt
In our bed hot with anger so cold at the center
I feel like a ghost haunting our love
A passion that once was what dreams are made of

There’s hundreds of secrets that beg to be told
In the dark dusty space beneath our resting place
The unfortunate habit of holding your tongue
Silenced your words from the time you were young

All that I ask for
Is to learn to let go now
I’ll take it further
If you just show me how
It’s all that I ask for

Every night from now on as I lay down to sleep
I’ll whisper a promise my soul is to keep
I’ll sadly thank you for what we’ve been through
Wakin up to a goodbye is a hard thing to do

I’ll hear my own laugh
Setting this heart free
Finding that faith in me

All that I ask for
Is to learn to let go now
I’ll take it further
If you just show me how
It’s all that I ask for
It’s all that I ask for
It’s all that I ask for

Musicians:

SV – vocal
Paul Delong – drums
George Koller – acoustic bass
Kim Ratcliffe – acoustic & electric guitar

The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix – September 12, 2002 by Cam Fuller:

“Suzie Vinnick visited her old hometown of Saskatoon recently, long enough to drop off her new album 33 Stars. And it’s great. Vinnick’s sometimes playful, occasionally laid-back, always confident vocals complement the music perfectly. Surprises lurk around every corner, like the sensational opening track Something So Sweet. It has you scrambling to confirm your suspicions that it’s a modernized version of an undiscovered gem from the great American songbook. But rather than Cole Porter’s name in the credits, you find it’s a Vinnick-Deborah Alexander original. A cover of Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll seems unlikely on paper, but it’s done up beautifully with acoustic guitar and jazzy vocals that evoke a lazy summer day. Regardless of the writer, whether it’s Tom Waits (Picture in a Frame) or a heartfelt original (Hanging out in Heaven), the sound holds together. Shades of Lisa Loeb in the title track and Amy Sky in the writing on the Les Smith/Kristi Magraw composition The Hands that Rock the Cradle. Wow. Check out www.suzievinnick.com for on-line sales.”

Ottawa Folklore Centre’s Newsletter “RESONATE” – Sept. 2002
Review by ‘Uncle’ Chopper MacKinnon

This is the pop/folk version of the noted Blues bassist and vocal star. Danny Greenspoon produced a collection of great tunes, some of Suzie’s and some surprising versions of tunes from Led Zeppelin to Roy Forbes. I may weld the door to my CD player shut and put this puppy on continuous play. Congratulations to everyone involved-it’s a beaut!

Music Worth Hunting For – Paul Morden, The Sarnia Observer, Oct 5, 2002

On a warm night in Sarnia this past summer, singer Suzie Vinnick walked out on the Ribfest stage in Centennial Park armed with only her voice, her songs and guitarist Troy McLaggan. Heavy rock had been blasting through the sound system for an hour and Vinnick was handed the heroic task of being an acoustic act opening for rock and blues electric guitar wizard Colin James. It made her a little nervous. “But,” she said, “the crowd was so responsive, it really inspired me to sing my heart out.”

Vinnick quickly won the crowd over with her big blues-trained voice and a couple nods to the gods of rock, including a playful bossa nova arrangement of Led Zeppelin’s Rock N Rolls and an acoustic version of AC/DC’s Ride On. The crowd sang along and kept her out on stage for an encore. “It was a pretty wonderful introduction to Sarnia,” she said.

Vinnick started out singing blues in Saskatoon and then moved to Ottawa in the early 1990s to join Tony D and his Cool Band, contributing vocals and bass to its 1992 award-winning release Dig Deep.

After a couple years she went solo, selling 6,000 copies of her first compact disc Angel In the Sidelines. She has played folk festivals, toured overseas to sing for the Canadian troops and was one of nine singers (alongside Sarnia’s Emm Gryner) chosen to perform at a Joni Mitchell tribute concert at Toronto’s Harbourfront.

Soon after her Sarnia show, Vinnick released her second CD 33 Stars, recorded with Danny Greenspoon, a producer who has worked with Great Big Sea and Spirit of the West. It’s a less bluesy collection of songs, the best of which are the five titles where Vinnick is listed as co-writer. They’re gentle-sounding, well-crafted, personal songs from the folk-pop neighborhood of Shawn Colvin and Rickie Lee Jones. Both are artists Vinnick admires.

The title song 33 Stars and Drive Fast in particular are musical gems where Vinnick takes her big voice into a delicate space with style and tenderness. In Sarnia, Vinnick showed she has the vocal muscle to take over a rock stage. On her new album, she proves that she also has the ability to move into a gentle musical space and fill it up with the right amount of expression and feeling.

A feeling of loss runs through the lyrics in Vinnick’s songs. “The past few years have been a bit of a challenge,” she said. Her seven-year marriage ended. Her grandmother and a friend died, and then both of her parents died of cancer. The song Hanging Out In Heaven was written for Vinnick’s father and the album’s country contribution I Need A Cowboy is a song she used to sing with him. Her Latin-inspired version of Rock N Roll is there on the album, along with Tom Wait’s Picture In a Frame and a few other covers that show signs of Vinnick’s blues background.

But, it’s the originals that stick out and stay in the mind of a listener. They’re good enough that the only reason Vinnick needs to think about recording covers is if they’re songs she really loves and wants to sing. It’s a well-built album, with some guest musicians including blues master Colin Linden on guitar and Quartette members Cindy Church and Gwen Swick on background vocals.

A few major labels considered picking up the album but passed so Vinnick released it herself. “I think it’s a pretty scary time for the majors these days with all the music downloading that goes on.” She said. “they seem to be very cautious about who they sign. “I’m not the type of artist that will likely sell millions of albums and it seems they’re looking for really heavy hitters”. She’s too kind.

Vinnick is another example that much of the truly good and interesting music being made today is found away from corporate music and the major labels. The accountants are running mainstream music these days, and running it into the ground as quickly as they have Enron and Qwest.

So, music lovers have to go hunting for the good stuff, but albums like 33 Stars and artists like Vinnick make it worth the trouble.

Paul Morden is The Observer’s entertainment editor

This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters.
Ce projet est financé en partie par FACTOR, le gouvernement du Canada et les radiodiffuseurs privés du Canada

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