Take Note: Andra Suchy

GREW UP: Mandan, North Dakota

EARLY SINGING EXPERIENCE: My mom and dad are both musicians. [Andra’s father is folksinger/songwriter Chuck Suchy.] When I was a kid, our family would travel around to folk festivals and county fairs, playing and singing. We gigged a lot, and that experience made it possible for me to see that it was possible to do music as a job.

MINNESOTA CONNECTION: Back in 1996, I met some guys in a band called Wallace Hartley & The Titanics. They were playing in town one night and I ended up singing with them. We played at Bunker’s a few times, then they decided to move into a house in Jordan, and I moved in with all seven of them.

BANDS: These days, I sing with Hookers & Blow, The Dollys, the Billy Johnson’s Road Show, occasionally with The Honeydogs and Dave Pirner & The Volunteers. I play with my dad and brother sometimes too. And I have my own band.

ON HER BAND'S MUSIC: It’s country-ish, though I don’t like the label alt-country. My stuff is folkie, country, singer-songwriter music with maybe a little tinge of bluegrass. The new CD will be a little less rockin’, a little more countrified.

INFLUENCES: Linda Ronstadt, EmmyLou Harris, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, Heart—those were my biggest influences.

LISTENING TO NOW: Some early Robert Palmer, Tift Merritt, The Honeydogs, The Jayhawks. And I still listen to Linda Ronstadt and Joni Mitchell.

CATCH HER ACT: Oct 3: The Dollys @ Mayslack’s; Oct 9: With Chuck Suchy (dad) @ The 318, Excelsior; Oct. 10: The Dollys @ Lee’s Liquor Lounge; Oct 7: Billy Johnson’s Road Show, Bunker’s.