Vancouver isn't often thought of a hotbed of alt-country, but nobody told that to Suzie Ungerleider, better known as
Oh Susanna. On her debut EP, she runs through seven songs with a gothic country feel, sitting somewhere between traditional country (
Dolly Parton for example) and contemporary artists like
Gillian Welch or Sixteen Horsepower. The reading of the material here is more restrained than on the follow-up album, but thematically it's pretty grim, making it far more interesting than most of what comes of Nashville. ~ Sean Carruthers