Sing with Suzy Bogguss

MOSES LAKE - Suzy Bogguss doesn't want you to be shy. She wants you to sing along with her.

Bogguss' newest project, "American Folk Songbook," was born of her desire.

"I grew up with the music program in my school and I was really fortunate," she says. "They're cutting those kinds of things in lots of school systems now and when I have gone into schools and done assemblies to sing to these kids, a lot of times I find that they're kind of shy, they don't have the same kind of exuberance that I did when I was a kid singing these great old songs."

Bogguss says some of them may not know the words to the songs, but also suspects kids think they either have to be American Idol-caliber singers or shouldn't sing at all.

"To me, that's just so wrong," she says. "Singing is not just for singers, singing is not just for people who make their living doing that. It's for everybody to share and entertain themselves with and have fun with."

When performing songs from "American Folk Songbook," Bogguss hopes she's not the only one singing.

Bogguss toured with "A Prairie Home Companion's" Garrison Keillor, who does a lot of sing-alongs at his shows. He left his audiences mesmerized, she says.

"Just watching the way the people love to perform with him, they love to get involved, they love to sing along and it made me start thinking about how much I like that, when the audience is involved in my show. It makes you feel like we're all sharing something at the same time."

As Bogguss began selecting songs for the project, she discovered many had interesting histories. She decided to publish a companion book to go with the CD, not just to provide the written music for the songs, but to give people a glimpse into the deeper meaning and history of what they were singing.

"I wanted to do 'Frog Went A-Courtin'' because it was a big thing for me when I was a kid; it was fun. And then when I started researching it I found out that it had been published in 1611 ... and then they can even trace the title of the song back all the way back to 1549 in Scotland. So I'm making a record called 'American Folk Songbook' and realizing that some of these songs are older than America, so I have a few little disclaimers to make along the way," she says with a laugh.

Bogguss says she tried to pick some of the most obscure stories behind songs and used the story behind "Wildwood Flower" as an example.

Most people think that the Carter Family wrote the song, but Bogguss says the original sheet music was written in 1861 and that the song was passed along over the years. Over time, the message of the song changed.

The song tells the story of a girl who gets dumped by a man that has led her on. In the Carter Family version, says Bogguss, "they made it like, this guy broke my heart and I'll never get over it, I'm sitting here just thinking about how sad I am and it's awful."

But originally, the girl in the song was more resilient, says Bogguss.

"The original version in 1861, the woman is saying, 'I am putting flowers in my hair right now and I'm getting ready to go to a party and I plan to be the most beautiful belle there and I'm going to charm every single person in the room and I'm going to make him so sorry,'" says Bogguss.

"As people started passing it down the words changed, and even the message in the song changed, so it's been fascinating, finding out all this stuff. And, of course, I like the girl who likes to be fancy instead of the one who's sitting at home, sad."

While Bogguss has performed many times in Seattle, Friday will be her first time in central Washington.

"I'm really looking forward to it," she says, adding that fans have been telling her about the region via Twitter. "I love the whole connection with the wine country and stuff out there, I think we're going to have a blast."

Bogguss will be playing music from throughout her career spanning multiple genres.

"These days I'm pretty hodgepodge," she says.

She'll be performing her radio hits from the 1990s, songs from her swing album and the folk music from her newest album.

Diehard country fans will leave happy and there will be music to entertain and move people that aren't country fans, too, she says.

"I never had to sing anything I didn't love, so that's been a real fortunate thing. It's a really bad thing if you have a hit song that you don't love because you'll be singing that forever," she says with a laugh. "I've been very fortunate to just love the songs I sing every night."

Suzy Bogguss performs Friday at the Centennial Amphitheater in McCosh Park at 8 p.m.

The performance is free and is part of the Grant County Food and Wine Festival Friday and Saturday.

The food court opens at noon both days, while the food and wine festival starts at 6 p.m.