SUSS has announced a slew of tour dates alongside Immersion, the electronic duo made up of Colin Newman from Wire and Malka Spigel from Minimal Compact. These dates include a major Across the Horizon themed curation effort as part of the legendary Big Ears festival. The band is also sharing a timely and intense cover of Woody Guthrie‘s classic, “This Land Is Your Land”.
The band speaks eloquently below about the concept and origin of their version of the piece, tied into the recent Presidential inauguration.
Jonathan Gregg: “Music more than almost anything else can evoke the emotions of a time and place. As we find ourselves again in a time of challenge and uncertainty, we reach for solace in the same places as those who came before. Whether it’s a hymn, a battle cry, or a simple folk song, music is at the ready to bring us together and remind us that we have been here before, we are still here, and always will be as long as we remember.”
“People has got to have more faith in one another, believe in each other. There’s a spirit of some kind we’ve all got. That’s got to draw us all together.” – Woody Guthrie
Great songs endure. The sentiments expressed by Woody Guthrie in his 1940 classic are no different today; the Dust Bowl and the social upheaval it caused may have faded from memory, but the truths of fairness and equality are timeless, like the songs they inhabit. Music exists to connect, and its lessons are deeply ingrained. You don’t need a lyric to feel it, you already know that truth will persist as long as there is someone to hear it.
It’s hard to know exactly where the idea for a song begins or how it progresses, but in the case of SUSS’s interpretation of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” the path was pretty clear. Bob recalls “I was playing my guitar and watching the news with the sound turned down. Before I knew it, I started strumming the patriotic standard. I slipped into a minor key which seemed to throw the whole song into a new direction, even though it didn’t change the melody that much. I pulled out my phone, and recorded the guitar, harmonica and whistling on the first take — right there in the living room.” The melody was haunting, the recording was raw, and it seemed to capture everything he was feeling at the time. He sent the track to Pat, who always has a way of pulling things a little left of center, which is just what it needed.
As Pat says, “We live in a big country. This land was made for all of us; it was made for you and me. SUSS music has always been about finding space and exploring the power of the unexpected. Woody Guthrie’s words resonate throughout the SUSS version of “This Land Is Your Land” so we don’t have to hear them literally.”
Once Pat had added keyboards to the track, Jonathan recorded his pedal steel, adding a strange mixture of hope and aching pain, taking the track to a whole new place. Jonathan goes on to say “Music more than almost anything else can evoke the emotions of a time and place. As we find ourselves again in a time of challenge and uncertainty, we reach for solace in the same places as those who came before. Whether it’s a hymn, a battle cry, or a simple folk song, music is at the ready to bring us together and remind us that we have been here before, we are still here, and always will be as long as we remember.”
Mastered by Chuck Johnson, SUSS’s adaptation of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” was released by Northern Spy Records on January 15th, 2025, just days before the Presidential Inauguration. SUSS is proud to release this music into a world that needs a timeless message of hope, resilience and community more than ever.
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Gabriel at Clandestine Label Services.]
