WINTHROP — Grammy and Country Music Association award-winner Suzy Bogguss plans to get everyone singing along at her Nov. 18 concert at the Winthrop Performing Arts Center.

The show will feature material from her new CD and companion hardcover publication, “American Folk Songbook,” released in August. She will also perform songs that propelled her to the top of country and folk charts.

Bogguss won the 2005 Grammy for Traditional Folk Album and is a past winner of the CMA’s Horizon and Album of the Year awards.

It was three years ago in a show she was doing with Garrison Keillor of “Prairie Home Companion” fame when Bogguss realized kids were no longer joining in on the popular audience singalong to classic folk songs like “Red River Valley.”

Noting that music education continues to be trimmed from public schools, she worries that these melodies are in danger of being lost. So she resolved to record these timeless songs in an updated but reverent way.

“Music has always been my purest joy, even as a child. One of my favorite memories is my grade school music teacher pounding on the piano and leading the class in rousing renditions of folk songs from all around the world,” Bogguss writes in the introduction to “American Folk Songbook.”

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Bogguss says she modeled the songbook after her “good old fifth-grade songbook.”

The Winthrop concert program will include Bogguss’ renditions of songs like “Shenandoah,” “Wayfaring Stranger,” “Ol’ Dan Tucker,” “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Red River Valley.” She will also perform some of her country music chart-toppers like “Aces,” “Drive South,” “Someday Soon,” “Outbound Plane” and “Letting Go.”

Bogguss has demonstrated skill and passion for all types of music in her career. Besides her Grammy and CMA awards, her wide-ranging talent also produced 2007’s Billboard Jazz Chart hit “Sweet Danger,” the acclaimed album “Swing” recorded in 2003 with Ray Benson of “Asleep At The Wheel,” and “Simpatico” in collaboration with master guitarist Chet Atkins.

“Suzy Bogguss has been in Maine quite a few times in the past year. She has a big following here, and we are pretty fortunate to be bringing her to Winthrop,” said Victoria Christopher, president of the Winthrop Education Corporation.

The concert will be at 8 p.m. at the arts center at 211 Rambler Road. Tickets may be purchased at www.winthropedcorp.org and at the door.


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