Bringing It All Back Home with Sweet Suzi

It was a homecoming of sorts for Lindenhurst’s own Sweet Suzi, a bluesy road-tested pop vocalist who returned recently to the area to perform at the with a trio of musicians called Sugafixx.

Armed with CDs, a pop repertoire infused and deeply saturated with blues undertones, and a rapport for the audience borne of Suzi’s road experience and strong local connections, the foursome rocked the sun out of the sky on the patio of the in Lindenhurst.

returned home after extensive slate of road dates on tour, performing at regional festivals and turning intimate clubs into "juke-joints" throughout the Northeast. The band’s live performances are aptly described as intoxicating, and have been called "can't miss events" on the New York City blues calender.

became a fixture on the New York music scene a decade or so ago, strutting her considerable stuff with a group known as Sweet Suzi and the Blues Experience. In that incarnation she and her band won three New York blues competitions that sent her to Memphis where she impressed savvy audiences at the International Blues Competition.

Her pure blues performances from those days, as well as more recently with a variety of personnel, are easy to find on YouTube (with the Blues Experience, the Josey Wales Band, Ronni Baker Brooks and more).

As for the Beach Hut on before the local audience, she and Sugafixx offered up the same intensely felt experience as a blues evening, but generally applied their skills to more pop fare.

Yet despite the “down home” feel of the afternoon’s performance – Sweet Suzi invited a number of local youngsters to perform – the blues professionalism and sheer potency of the band was in full display.

Suzi’s a true blues singer whose voice invites comparison to Janis Joplin, Etta James and Gladys Knight – reaching for the gravelly growling bottom, swinging from her heels, soaring out of tight arrangements to bring out the urban “pit and prune juice” of a song. She handles everything from standard blues numbers to classic rockers by The Beatles and Rolling Stones with equal skill.

Complementing Suzi’s memorable voice and stage presence is a trio of instrumentalists who can rock with the best of them.

Former Curb Dogs rockers John Puglisi, guitar, and Joe Pagano, bass, provide the musical pillars around which Suzi weaves her estimable magic. Drummer Ronnie Sciacca – formerly with such bands as Rooster, The Kane Daly Band, Dirty Dawg and The Dare Ya Blues Band – was rock solid throughout.

Sweet Suzi and Sugafixx is a band that possesses that rare talent for making you feel like where you’re at is where it’s at.

If you missed the band at the Beach Hut, take a peek through the for highlights of the show. And catch one of the band’s upcoming dates, including Sweet Suzi’s return to the Beach Hut on August 7.