The Space Lady
Welcome to the cosmic playground of The Space Lady, the Queen of Outsider Music. The Space Lady (AKA Suzy Soundz; born Susan Dietrich Schneider) has a heart as soft and sweet as the distinctive coo of her voice. A listen to The Space Lady is the perfect antidote to daily stresses and anxiety – listening is like being hooked up to an IV of pure love and joy. Since the 70’s she has been spreading her message of cosmic awakening, peace, and harmony through her simple, unique, and dazzling covers. She spent much of the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s earning a decent living busking in Boston and then San Francisco, at first on accordion, and then on what has become her trademark battery-operated Casiotone MT-40 with a phase shifter and battery-operated amp. It was during her time busking that she acquired the nickname The Space Lady, and established her signature look: a winged silver helmet with a flashing red light. With the help of her first husband, she incorporated popular songs of the era into her set, figuring out how to play them by ear on her Casio. She recounts, “People began telling me how ‘different’ and ‘original’ my interpretations were, when I was actually trying my best to recreate what the original artists had done.” In other words, she couldn’t help but to give every song that otherworldly Space Lady sound.
The Space Lady retired to Colorado in 2000, although the retirement didn’t last for long. In 2012, at the urging of her second husband who began managing her, she revived The Space Lady act, signed to the London label Night School Records who released the 2013 compilation The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits (later repressed by Mississippi Records), and began touring internationally, playing for audiences even bigger than the Haight-Ashbury throngs of happy listeners she played to back in the day. This Greatest Hits compilation features remastered versions of covers and originals she recorded in 1990 to sell as handmade cassettes and CD’s. Now managed by her grandson, her career and resurgence continue to blossom.
– Lauren Fay Levy
Recommended – A2 Synthesize Me, A3 Major Tom, A4 Ghost Riders In The Sky, B3 I Had Too Much Dream (Last Night)
A1 Humdinger
A2 Synthesize Me
A3 Major Tom
A4 Ghost Riders In The Sky
A5 Domine, Libra Nos / Showdown
B1 Fly Like An Eagle
B2 Born To Be Wild
B3 I Had Too Much Dream (Last Night)
B4 From The Womb To The Tomb
B5 Ballroom Blitz