John Henry (live performance with Anne Price)

Born Stephen Lawrence Suffet in 1947, Steve Suffet is best described as an old fashioned folksinger. His repertoire is a mixture of railroad songs, trucker songs, cowboy songs, union songs, old time ballads, blues, ragtime, Gospel, bluegrass, topical-political songs, and whatever else tickles his fancy. He takes songs from whatever sources he wishes and then he sings them his own way, maybe rewriting the lyrics on the spot, flatting a 7th, or changing a major key to a mountain modal.Steve also writes his own songs, sometimes set to the tunes of traditional folk songs, but more often set to tunes he has composed in traditional styles.

Photo credit: Jody Kolodzey