Susan Werner

Susan Werner plays The Cedar Cultural Center on Friday, March 19, 2027. She's a singer-songwriter and guitarist who's spent years on the acoustic circuit, and her shows are built around two things: virtuosic playing and a stand-up comic's sense of timing. If you've never seen her, that's a good way to frame it—it's as much about the storytelling and the wit as it is about the music.

Werner's a multi-instrumentalist with a reach that goes well beyond the folk label. She first picked up the guitar at five and has professional-level chops on both guitar and piano, and she holds a master's degree in voice performance. That piano side has taken her as far as Piano Jazz on NPR, where she was a guest of Marian McPartland. The songs themselves pull from a wide spread of styles: New Orleans piano, Texas roadhouse, gospel, and traditional Cuban son. It's a lot of ground to cover in one set, and she's got the technical range to pull it off.

The critics have had plenty to say about her over the years. All Music Guide put it bluntly, saying she's in "such complete command of her gifts that it's almost scary." No Depression has named Jimmy Webb and Paul Simon as her only peers, and The New Yorker called her a "clever songwriter and an engaging performer" who brings "literacy and wit back to popular song." From Nashville, Music Row kept it simple: "This woman is great."

It's a solo bill, so the whole night is her. The show is at The Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis. Doors open at 7 PM, and the show starts at 8 PM.