Sue Decker’s rich and warm voice, distinctive slide guitar playing, and authentic songwriting make for a powerful combination. Her music inhabits the borderlands where blues, folk, country, and soul meet, now witnessed in her second album, Keeping Time. She collaborated with sought-after roots producer Steve Dawson to record at The Henhouse Studio in Nashville. In 2019, Sue had released her debut full-length album Outskirts of Love to international acclaim.
Her latest single, “Hummingbird,” finds solace in nature. She explains, “In the first several weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had the precious experience of watching a hummingbird build her nest on a tree branch right outside my window, tend to the eggs, and feed the hatchlings. Then I got to see the little ones learn to fly. It helped me get through those bewildering and dark days.”
On Keeping Time, Sue’s unique capacity for pairing meaningful and topical lyrics with ear-catching melodies shines through. True to her aim as a songwriter, she uses ordinary language to fuse everyday moments with the unspeakable and the extraordinary. The recording process was mostly live-off-the-floor playing music together in real time. The powerful, intimate, and playful songs hold a lifetime of experiences within small moments—looking back on the past and what was not meant to be, current challenges we’re all facing, and preparing for what the future may hold.
