One of the world’s premiere exponents of her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music. Having first paid her dues in Texas country and western bands, she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of 20th century classical music, visionary jazz, and world musics. Though known for her solo work, she has collaborated with numerous artists including Pauline Oliveros, Eugene Chadbourne, Chris Cutler, the London Improvisors Orchestra, the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, Ingrid Laubrock and Leila Bourdreuil, George Burt, Evan Parker, Caroline Kraabel, Michael Formanek, Zane Campbell, and Mary Halvorson among others. In 2017 she received the Baker Artist Award and in 2018, along with saxophonist Joe McPhee, the Instant Award in Improvised Music. Her album Pedernal, released in 2020, was included in several Best of Year lists including the New York Times. In 2023, her recording Canto garnered international acclaim.
I can't think of anything to write about this improvisation. Basically, I sat down, put on my picks, cleared my mind, turned on the amp, hit the record button and started to play.
Before I play, I just quiet myself, try to empty my mind of thoughts, then just play.
I learned that music is more than just the fundamental of a note – like the core of a planet galaxy or atom, each is surrounded by an atmosphere and then a stratosphere, and energy/matter reaching to infinity. I don’t think about this when I'm playing, but it does inform my aesthetic. I have a wide range of influences from folk music, baroque, classic country, blues, rock, early 60s girl groups and doo wop, psychedelic music, the American Songbook, John Coltrane's spiritual journey through his music, Ornette Coleman's harmolodics, Pauline Oliveros, and 20th century classical composers such as Olivier Messiaen, Edgard Varese, Gyorgy Ligeti, Shostakovich, Britten, and Phillip Glass.
I think all of these are somewhere in the background when I'm playing. I'm also aware when I play that music is for listening and not just for myself. It's a communal experience which, I hope, will take us all, at least for a moment, to another place.