Windy City Times: Hello, Susan. How are you on this beautiful day?

Susan Werner: It is a beautiful day. I think I will ride my bike down to the lake on the Northerly Island. There is a path that, for about a quarter mile, you have the city to yourself.

Windy City Times: What area of the city do you live in?

Susan Werner: We live right downtown in Streeterville.

Windy City Times: How long have you lived in Chicago?

Susan Werner: Eleven years. Before that I lived in Philadelphia for about 15 years. I grew up in Iowa. I always wanted to get back within driving distance of my family and Iowa. This really feels like home to me. I think it is the same for many people from the Midwest.

Windy City Times: You tour a lot, from what I read.

Susan Werner: I am gone a lot. I thank God for Southwest Airlines because I can get everywhere that I need to get to. The bad news it is a small plane and everyone is packed in now.

Windy City Times: This show at the Auditorium Theatre should be intimate.

Susan Werner: I have played this particular kind of show two or three times now. When I tell people in town that I am playing the Auditorium they nearly fall over. They think I have 3,000 fans in one place! [Laughs]

For this show we put the table and chairs on the stage so it is cabaret seating. Our little stage is at the lip of the big stage. So you are sitting onstage looking back toward the seats. To sit there and experience the glamorous view that famous people like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix had—now, you can get it too.

Windy City Times: It is 1940s style.

Susan Werner: Yes, it is tables with table clothes and two bars. By the time we start you can be well-lubricated.

Windy City Times: What other venues have you played in town?

Susan Werner: I have played Old Town School of Folk Music, and Schubas is where I really started playing in Chicago. I have played Space in Evanston a couple of times. That is a really nice new venue up there. There is not a bad seat in the house. It's a nightclub for grownups.

Windy City Times: I have heard great things about it.

Susan Werner: One the things that make the Auditorium show great is that I will have my band with me. Trina Hamlin is probably one of the world's best harmonica players. She brings the house down plus she plays the drum kit at the same time. She is a one-woman hurricane. I will also have Natalia Zuckerman, who plays bass. It is a virtual wall of women.

Windy City Times: How is the new album different from the others?

Susan Werner: I try to make every project different from the one that came before. There is great energy in doing something new. For me that is the carrot, to find a new style and master it. I did a Cole Porter project in 2007. I did a gospel project for agnostics. In 2009 I did chamber music. This last one came from a trip I took down the blues highway. It was from Memphis to Mississippi. I was hanging out there and soaking in the music. It made the blues real to me. I would recommend that to any fan of music. I think you need to see the landscape. Have you done it?

Windy City Times: Well, I am from Tennessee.

Susan Werner: Dude! This record was made in Nashville. It was produced by Rodney Crowell. Vince Gill came in and sat in. He is the honorary mayor of Nashville.

Windy City Times: I just heard how supportive Vince is from LeAnn Rimes.

Susan Werner: He is all about the music. He just wants people to make good music. Keb Mo came in and sat in also. If you make it into this inner circle in Nashville everyone gathers around you and wants to make something wonderful. Good music is the religion that everyone agrees on in Nashville. It has the largest bible producing area and home of the largest adult bookstore.

Windy City Times: [Both laugh.] Don't you love that?

Susan Werner: It is fantastic.

Windy City Times: I grew up in that, in the closet.

Susan Werner: You were lost like a rocket, friend. It is opening up like much of Tennessee. I have a friend who is head of the LGBT network in Memphis. The South is changing. Those of us that grew up in a conservative space came out with momentum. Hopefully we aim that toward a lot of other people. My favorite places to play are blues towns and red states.

Windy City Times: You can make a difference in places like that.

Susan Werner: You feel very useful. Some of things I say can be confirming when someone is a minority. Eureka Springs, Ark., has a Christian theme park up on the hill. A giant Jesus statues looks down over the valley. But the valley is an arts community and has the largest gay-pride parade in Arkansas. It is fabulous!

Windy City Times: How do you feel about other out musicians, such as Melissa Etheridge or Indigo Girls?

Susan Werner: They are the pioneers, anyone that went through the windshield. They were a hero and changed the road for everybody else. Someone that is very important to me is Joan Armatrading. I did two tours with her. She played the hell out of a guitar before any woman had done that. She is so deeply musical.

Purchase your tickets at www.auditoriumtheatre.org or call 800-982-2787 for the Saturday, Sept. 24, show at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Pkwy.

ed the hell out of a guitar before any woman had done that. She is so deeply musical.

Purchase your tickets at www.auditoriumtheatre.org or call 800-982-2787 for the Saturday, Sept. 24, show at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Pkwy.

Also please see related 2009 story, Susan Werner reveals her classic B-side, at the link:

www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php