Susan Werner brings a supple alto and powerful guitar and piano ability to the stage, spicing up her remarkable songcraft with a charismatic presence and whip-smart social commentary. Her innovative, finely polished songs are unpredictable and richly evocative, praised by New Yorker magazine as "sublime originals that sound like Great American Songbook classics."

An Iowa native now residing in Chicago, Susan earned a master's degree in classical voice from Temple University. She honed her performance skills in listening rooms on the east coast before gaining national attention in 1996 with the release of her third album, Last of the Good Straight Girls.

Tonight, Susan spotlights "agnostic gospel" numbers from her most recent CD, The Gospel Truth. Born at the intersection between the infectious joy of gospel music and her own questioning intellect, Susan's new tunes offer a heartfelt, incisive commentary on contemporary religion in America, ranging from uplifting handclap choir rousers to what is sure to become the anthem of agnostics everywhere, "Probably Not."