LIVE REVIEW: COUNTRY CALLING 2026 - CAFFE NERO STAGE - SUSANNAH CLEGG

Even months on from first seeing her, #TEAMw21 are always pleasantly surprised when the girl singing old time Country sounding tunes, normally drenched in woe or with body counts akin to a Tarantino movie, with a few light hearted quips between songs, manages not just to win over over crowd, she normally leaves the stage with them baying for more. Yet that is the enigma that is Susannah Clegg, as quiet off stage as she is boisterous on it, her brand of country seems be knocking people over like ninepins and it was another strike at Country Calling where she simply wowed.

Having raced across from the other end of the festival we joined Susannah just as she was about to start "Tess", her Thomas Hardy inspired creation although we caught the tail end of the previous song when we were still some distance away from the stage, such are Susannah's powers of projection. With the heat somewhere near sub tropical,the only part of Susannah's regular garb to have survived was her hat. She was sporting a pair of sunglasses and a shortish dress replaced her miner chic outfits of a few months ago.

With a confident guitar style, and suitably downbeat source material, Susannah would weave a little mournful magic

"I used to think an angel would save my soul

or make me whole"

In fairness the written word does no justice to the way the Susannah performs the above words, with the shortest words extending out far further than you'd think and it is hard to convey just how well Susannah inhabits her creations, with a certain melancholy, that is so impressive.

Her next song "Forget Me Not", was declared to be the most "Patsy Cline" of her own material, which saw Susannah almost doing a little dance at one point. The next song was introduced as being "A bit of a weird one" - before launching into an explanation that we won't spoil. "Sweet Roses", an uptempo folky country tune which closes with the aforementioned roses being placed on someone's dirt mound, after they have died! It is fictional though and did end with Susannah sporting a wide smile.

Only Susannah could preface a song by saying "Its called "Good Times Are Coming Our Way"" then undercutting it by saying "They're not really".

Billed as a sad seven minute mining song, it comes with a high body count and just about anything that can go wrong does. There is more than a touch of Thomas Hardy's influence in this one as well, and Susannah as our narrator makes it all seem so plausible, as the realities of mining are laid out in the bleakest of ways. The prospect that things will get better is always maintained throughout the song despite all the evidence to the contrary.

"I knew the mine was dangerous work, my Brother and Father were dead"

It is a compelling narrative, that Susannah vividly brings to life.

There is a definite charm to Susannah's intro's, forinstance the upbeat sounding "Caroline" we are told is about her dog, who's not called Caroline, but it was better for rhyming! Along with Ags Connolly, Susannah was probably the most truly authentic Country act across the whole weekend. An unlikely singalong would come, in the shape of "Colorado" as the audience tried to vaguely match Susannah's soaring delivery, "It makes me happy", she would say if there were to be some audience participation, and somehow that was all that was required.

There was the new single, the super speedy "Last To Know Blues" with the vocals fired out out at a rapid rate alongside an equivalently fast guitar, which received a rousing reception. There was a slight irony that the set would close with the standard "16 Tons", made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford with its "Another day older and deeper in debt" refrain, only to then deliver it in the most cheerful version that we've ever heard. It would see Susannah provide at times screeching, vocal cord shredding choruses, cheered on by the audience who had started clapping along unsolicited.

With an album to come later this year and dates with her band as well - she is an absolute must see at the moment.