Musicians Featured - Susan Walsh
November 3rd, 2021
Susan Walsh Shares Why We Need Music
Our very first Musicians Featured profile is Susan Walsh, a songwriter from Nova Scotia, Canada. Keep reading to learn more about her journey with music, how it has supported her through the heavier moments of life, and her words of encouragement for everyone to get in touch with their musical side.
I was incredibly moved by her story, the beautiful way she writes about her experiences, and the way she artfully sums up her experiences with insightful quotes. I hope that you enjoy reading this interview as much as I did!
Emily Weatherhead, Founder
Name: Susan Walsh
Hometown: Antigonish, Nova Scotia
Instagram: @susanwalsh487 , @youcreateanything
Website: http://sunshinesue.com
CD: Sing Little Children
How did you get started on your musical journey?
My musical journey began in the womb. I say that because my parents were always singing. Dad made up songs while bouncing a baby on his knee. He taught us old Irish folk songs at a very early age. Mom sang a lot as well, but somewhere along the path of raising twelve children, she sang less.
“Sharing songs is as natural as breathing for me”
My earliest memories are singing related. I was told we were blessed with a gift meant to share. My sister and I were singing regularly at community concerts at age five and six. We are only fourteen months apart and being on stage together was a natural occurrence. I’m sure that is why my being with an audience has always been a positive place to be. Sharing songs is as natural as breathing for me. I have only ever experienced expressions of joy and relaxation while singing for others.
I recall my quiet excitement making up songs at a very young age. At age seventeen I was a full time Nanny to three small children in Boston. My employer heard me singing and within the first week of my work, she presented me with a guitar with the order, not a suggestion to “take lessons, you have a gift, don’t waste it.” I learned a few chords and that was it. With each new chord I would have another song idea, which at that time was never finished. Here I am at age sixty-six with many songs and very little knowledge of the guitar. I didn’t write songs for young children until I was in my forties.
“My children were used to seeing mom dressed up as Sunshine Sue, performing in their school, at summer festivals and private birthday parties”
Raising my boys alone with only a grade eight education and no job was very difficult. My children were used to seeing mom dressed up as Sunshine Sue, performing in their school, at summer festivals and private birthday parties.
I have been asked by a nine-year-old if Sunshine Sue would visit her classroom as her Show and Tell guest. I have visited many classrooms from grade three to grade nine. For the older children, I talk about the importance of staying in school. I have shared poems and entries from my journal. Young people are very keen to have a creative person sharing and singing. I have received many letters and poems after my visits. It seems natural that my youngest son is now thirty-one and playing in a band (Stonehouse) with two friends from high school. He loves to write songs and also does his solo performing on a regular basis.
When my children were in middle school, my Cd was nominated for an East Coast Music Award. I didn’t win, but it was an exciting event.
I had to take a break from singing to return to school at age fifty-two. It has been a long road to my Masters in Counselling Education, considering that I was a grade eight dropout. Click here to read an article about my educational journey.
How would you describe your music?
I am a storyteller, a folk singer/country-folk/and some of my songs fit no category. Words and melody almost always come through in a neat and ready package. I never learned to read music, but I learned to read faces very well. My songs bring up a lot of emotions for people, and that’s ok. People have thanked me over and over for sparking them to tears.
“I never learned to read music, but I learned to read faces very well”
My first songs came directly from my own experiences. I wrote my first complete song at age twenty-three, a few days after my father died. From that experience forward I wrote about being in love, about breaking up, about being alone and not being lonely. I wrote many songs while in therapy, working through and healing my experiences of early childhood trauma. I have shared these songs in workshops and other events particular to healing. I have been asked on several occasions to make a recording for survivors of abuse.
I think one of the best songs I have ever written is when I was in a very dark place which many might identify as depression. The words came clearly and easily:
“Daydreams are nightmares these long winter days. Everything is dark, darker than gray. I know this place I’ve been here before. Walking in circles staring at the floor, wearing out another chair, staring at the door…”
Sometimes I wake up at night with a song totally intact, and other times I have worked on a song for months, and sometimes I combine one song idea with another that has been on the shelf for months. After losing many potential song possibilities, I’ve learned the importance of keeping a bedside journal.
I write about other people’s challenges, I write silly songs not meant for children, for example “I’d rather be my lover’s dog than be my lover’s lover” is one with many lines of truth telling, but without descriptions of deep resentment and disappointment.
“Songs have always been inside me like a low flickering candle”
I have a song about the beautiful maple tree and how mother earth is always holding us. I wrote about the Westray Mine Disaster. My younger brother worked at the mine, and I had no idea for several hours whether my brother worked on that shift. Songs have always been inside me like a low flickering candle. I say that because I have spent many years as a full-time student, which left me no room to be my ‘true creative self’.
Music is calling more loudly from a deep place within me as I move through this time of Covid. I feel creative life sprouting inside me once again, now that I am not bent over a desk writing papers for a professor. I have songs waking me up at two in the morning again.
My mother’s voice also wakes me up, reminding me to sing and I am reminded of my parent’s words to share our gifts. Four years ago, while Mother lay dying in hospital, I brought my guitar into her room a few times a week over a three-month period. She rarely spoke, but she always had her foot and/or a finger tapping. One time she opened her eyes and looked right at me as I was singing and she said, “that’s the best song I ever heard dear.” On another occasion she said, “this is the best party.”
How do you think that music can build community and connect us?
My first memories of singing are at community halls in Newfoundland and Pictou County. I recall looking at all the smiling faces, completely present to me and my sister singing. I felt a beautiful energy from the audience which I cannot describe here. I also recall the warmth and sharing in the hall during the fifteen-minute break. People worked hard all week and looked forward to the community hall concerts.
“I felt a beautiful energy from the audience which I cannot describe here”
My Sunshine Sue summer festival performances were the most fun filled experiences I have ever experienced. Seeing parents stretched out on the grass with small children jumping up and down is a rich experience. Having children sitting in a classroom is another event that brings fond memories for me. Children enjoy the experience of a singer visiting a classroom, and I plan to do that again. Competing in Music Festivals is not in my experience, and I am not sure if the competitive feature would have appealed to me, yet many people look fondly back at their experience.
Music helps with grief and loss: I will share only one experience. A young woman who taught fiddle classes in a small community died suddenly after eating a food she was allergic to. Singers and players were asked to sing at the regular concerts held in her name, to raise funds for children to take music lessons.
In 1980 I was a single mother, new to the city of Halifax/Dartmouth. I was not a joiner, but I did find a wonderful group of singers, players and writers who called their group gatherings, the Harbour Folk Society. Once a month we had the opportunity to share our poetry, original songs and/or instrumental music with an audience who came to listen. That is the kind of audience I grew up singing for.
Is there anything else you would like to share with our audience?
I feel it is essential to allow one’s creativity to flow forth into the world. Sing because you like the sound of your own voice and enjoy that experience when you see the positive effect your music offers another human being.
I don’t read music, and I only know a few guitar chords and that is ok. I encourage people to be aware of the judging critical voice that we all experience at times. There is no room for comparison when one is sharing gifts endowed to them by the creator, or however you wish to name it. I am sixty-six. I am ready to sing and share again. I have a vision of my children’s songs in animated videos. I have been searching for many years for a person who would like to collaborate on a project with me. I am interested in creating an interactive weekly online series for young children. I need help with that as I don’t work well with computers. I have experience doing children’s TV. I had a Sunshine Sue and You show on Eastlink TV for two years. I had children visit the show and share in songs and poetry.
How can our audience connect with you further?
The best way to connect with me is email currently (susanwalsh51@hotmail.com), or you are welcome to message me on Instagram.
