Hornby Island Blues Workshop

A Saskatoon native living in Toronto, Suzie Vinnick has the voice of a blues mama who’s seen it all, a voice that will soothe the keeper at the crossroads. Suzie was nominated for two 2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards and has also won six Canadian Maple Blues Awards; four for Female Vocalist of the Year in 2009, 2008, 2006 and 2003; Bassist of the Year in 2006 and she shared Songwriter of the Year with Rick Fines for their 2006 release, Nothing Halfway. Suzie has also twice won first place in the Blues Category of the International Songwriting Competition; in 2010 for the song Sometimes I Think I Can Fly, co-written with Dan Kershaw, and in 2005 for the song The Honey I Want, co-written with Liz Tansey and David Leask. Suzie has been featured nationally on CBC Radio on Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Café, and has performed across Canada and the US, and for Canadian Peacekeepers in Bosnia and the Persian Gulf. She performs powerfully as a solo act or as a duo and band with Rick Fines, and is also a member of the groups the Marigolds (with Gwen Swick and Caitlin Hanford of Quartette) and Betty & the Bobs. In 2011 Suzie has been nominated in four categories for the 2012 Canadian Maple Blues Awards. They are Female Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Acoustic Act of the Year. Garnering all the fuss is her new cd Me ’n’ Mabel is an intimate, bare-bones collection of 14 acoustic blues songs featuring Suzie and her guitar. The Hornby Island Blues Workshop is pleased to have Suzie return for 2012.