Susanna Van Tassel
The Heart I Wear
Susanna Van Tassel’s debut reads like a who’s who of Austin country talent, with credits for Dave Biller, Lisa Pankratz, Casper Rawls, Earl Poole Ball, and producer Bruce Robison, among others. The dead-on playing is the perfect backdrop for Van Tassel’s sweet, sexy voice, innocent and beguiling at the same time. “You Broke the Rules” (penned by Pankratz), “Broad Minded,” and the title track find Van Tassel comfortable, but perhaps the cover of Eddy Arnold’s “You Don’t Know Me” showcases her voice at its smoothest and most evocative, with an arrangement bordering on jazzy/countrypolitan. As good as those songs are, though, the disc’s downfall is in the overall choice of material. Too many songs have the same feel and tempo, with none of them giving the local singer a chance to really let loose and belt out a few lines. It’s clear that Van Tassel has the vocal chops to take on a more challenging selection of songs, ones that would present her voice to better advantage. It all adds up to a very respectable debut effort from a talented singer who shows a great deal of promise for the future. With Kelly Willis somewhere between pop and country, Marti Brom doing rockabilly, Libbi Bosworth relocated to Houston, and Janet Lynn also departed, Van Tassel could be poised to become Austin’s new honky-tonk diva.
This article appears in May 5 • 2000.