Bio - Susan Belk

Hello, my name is Susan Belk. I am a songwriter. I thought I would start this new blog telling you about myself, right up front! I hope you'll check by often to see what I'm up to.

Until I was three I only had nursery rhyme recordings to listen to. Then daddy brought me an arm load of real 45 records he had rescued from a furniture store fire

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I had many of the hits from 1958 to 1962 and I jammed! I taught myself guitar at age nine and fell in love with folk music in 1968. My first live concert was Fan Fair in Nashville in 1972. I saw George & Tammy, Conway & Loretta, Porter (without Dolly), Charlie Pride, Charlie Rich, and I think the Mandrell Sisters. A year later I saw John Denver in Murphreesboro, TN. I loved the fact that he toured with a string symphony. The symphony experience, and classical works, took melody in a new direction for me.

I started writing songs at age 14. I never wanted to get on stage to perform them but always wanted to hear someone else perform my songs. I since learned that having an audience sing your lyrics along with you is the best feeling of all. I sang background vocals for demos in Muscle Shoals in my early 20’s and was told I sounded like Crystal Gayle or Linda Ronstadt. I married at 27 and became a closet songwriter, always taking care of husband and children first. I ended up raising my girls alone. They are up and on their way. I have returned to the music swelling within me, anxious to be heard.

After my mom died in 2002, I found a box containing one song she had written; a gospel tune called The Great Shining Light. She had played spoons all her life. They were her only instrument, because she couldn't afford one. Till that day I never knew she had written a song! I could feel her urging me to keep writing. Who knows, maybe she is my muse. I hope she found her Great Shining Light.

In 2007, two of my co-writers (Angela Hacker and her brother Zac) tried out for Nashville Star and made it all the way. Angela got into the competition with a song we wrote together, Brand New Pair of Boots, and got moved into the top 10 finalists with another song we wrote, When You Come Around. I was published by Rick Hall Music. I started writing at FAME studios.

I became known as a spare parts roadie. I saved many a gig by always having what was needed such as picks, strings, all the expected stuff. But how about a USB light for a soundboard? Had it. Orange duct tape for cords on the floor? Ditto. Pop screens? Of course! The local artist's always called me in an emergency. I kept a full PA system, mics, stands, cords, everything in the trunk of my car already locked and loaded, ready to go. At some point, Zac Hacker dubbed me "Mary Poppins" because he said he kept waiting for a rubber tree to come out of my purse! I sat at Angela's table one morning with a sewing kit I had brought over to repair the hem in a skirt. She had caught a boot heel in the hem, and it was what she had planned to wear that day to her photo shoot for No'Ala magazine. I worked on the skirt while she was in the shower because time was short. Angela and the skirt were both beautiful and arrived on time. I found it very rewarding every time I played the Fairy Godmother.

I thought about what it took to make wishes come true. I was not a wish grantor, or even a wish creator; no this stuff took hard WORK. I was a wish maker. I was an anticipator of needs, and a true master of the craft. As my song says, "I know what you want before you ask" (from When You Come Around) and so Wishmaker Music was born. Was there ever a charge for any of my services? No, just love me for who I am!