Biographical Information

Dave SanSoucie's rich acoustic sound is steeped in fertile Americana soil, but also stretches into the foreign folk idioms that helped inform our domestic "roots" identity. From America's many folk shadings, including country, blues, swing, bluegrass, jazz, and rock 'n' roll, to traditional Celtic and European folk, SanSoucie proves himself a worthy exponent of acoustic expression, and presses his own contemporary stamp on his influences. He calls it "funky folk", and lays it down in a spacious, delicious mix of originals and covers on Dead in Dog Years.

Based in York, Pennsylvania, SanSoucie grew up absorbing everything from rock and pop's usual suspects to the jazz of Coltrane, Miles Davis, Weather Report, and Oregon. SanSoucie also cites John Hartford, John Prine, Steve Goodman, Bruce Cockburn, Joni Mitchell, David Bromberg, Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, B.B. King, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Rush, and Bob Dylan as songwriting influences.

Garage bands led to an interest in acoustic music, and by his early 20's, SanSoucie left for Europe, where he discovered traditional folk, Celtic and bluegrass, and began busking and performing in pubs and folk clubs.

A multi-instrumentalist, SanSoucie went on to do everything from write/arrange/and produce jingles to engineer and produce CDs. He played folk-rock with the Moonbilles; blues with Straight No Chaser; alternative rock with Adam's House Cat; and most recently, rock/funk/jam tunes with the knormals.

In 1999, amid SanSoucie's annual spate of 150-200 gigs, he recorded Dead in Dog Years, which he describes as a "musical journey through the lost and found of life and love."

Tasty and spacious, intimate and lively, the album is moist and sticky with emotional texture. You can feel the love, the ache, the road in SanSoucie's supple, sonorous baritone, and almost taste the sweetness of the mandolin strumming and tremolo that rhythmically color much of the album. From the muggy bass groove of David Olney's "Smoke On Ice" to the almost-cracked vocals on Richard Thompson's "I Misunderstood," to the tasteful hand percussion on the Neville Brothers' "Yellow Moon" and SanSoucie's own "Long Cool Highway", Dead in Dog Years moves with an understated flair, but always seemingly on the verge of a good long jam.

(Jim Kirlin of Taylor Guitars)

Miscellaneous Information

• As a member of the folk/pop group "Cahoots", Dave toured extensively throughout Europe between 1980 and 1984.
  
• Dave has toured Europe and the United States as mandolinist/guitarist for Nashville Singer-Songwriter
  David Olney .
  
• Dave has produced and engineered albums by artists including Stever Varner (Jazz bassist), Jay Umble (Jazz guitarist), Jack Quigley (Singer-Songwriter), Bob Cooney (Singer-Songwriter), The Laune Rangers (Celtic music) and many others.
• Dave worked as an arranger/writer/engineer for a jingle house for about five years, until it drove him to the brink of insanity.
• Both of Dave's grandfathers were pretty much bald.
• Dave has a brother who is also a professional musician (Mike). Mike has a a full head of hair.
  .