Kat Harlton
Lead Photo: Michelle Belsky
Canadian country-rock powerhouse Suzie McNeil returns with her new album, Line 49, a soulful love letter to Canadian music. Showcasing her powerhouse vocals, McNeil blends country, rock, soul and Americana influences to take us on a nostalgic detour through some of our favorite Canadian songs.
I had the opportunity to chat with Suzie about her latest release, what she hopes fans connect with and what’s next.
Kat: Can you talk about the inspiration behind your latest album “Line 49”?
Suzie: I decided to take my music in a new direction in 2018, which was actually an old direction (haha). The first style of music that I really loved was soul music, and I wanted to take all of my music in a soul direction. We reworked some of my old radio hits into more of a soul feel, and when the city of Brantford hired me to perform at their Canada Day show one year, I was looking for Canadian songs that could be arranged into a soul style. My husband actually suggested “Bobcaygeon” by The Tragically Hip, he said we could make it sound sort of like the Amy Winehouse song “Valerie”. It turned out so great that I wanted to record it, and I released it as a single in 2023. Meanwhile, years ago, my dad would always bug me about an idea to record an album of Canadian songs, and at the end of 2024 he passed away. So I decided to finally make that record for him. I gathered together some Canadian songs that I thought I could rearrange and turn into a soul style, and here we are! 10 songs later!
Kat: What do you hope fans take from the album?
Suzie: I want this album to be a fun summer feel-good record. I want fans to feel the nostalgia of these Canadian songs from their youth, and enjoy them in this new style.
I’m hoping Canadians will add it to their playlist each and every summer while they are camping or up at their cottages!
Kat: What do you find is the most challenging part of your creative process?
Suzie: I actually found it all challenging, but all fun at the same time! Although we were covering songs on this album, it still took a lot of work to create the right feel for the songs.
I would pull up old soul and R&B songs, and I would sing the Canadian song ideas over them to see if they could work in that feel.
Then we had to get all of the musicians to play all of the parts, and then compiling it all together, it’s a lot of work to make a full record!
Kat: What has been a career highlight for you so far? What have you learned along the way?
Suzie: I have had so many career highlights! I would say touring with Stephen Tyler for 10 years… It was a really big one and very meaningful to me.
The biggest thing I’ve learned in my career is that nobody is going to help you like you are going to help yourself. Not in an angry way, but it’s definitely true. If you want something done, you’ve gotta work hard for it, and any help along the way is just a bonus!
Kat: What’s next?
Suzie: I plan on putting this Canadian soul-song show that will complement the record into more theatres across the country.
Connect With Suzie:
https://www.instagram.com/thesuziemcneil/
https://www.facebook.com/suziemcneilmusic
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5YE5o5iV0OC0fSqBQmctF8