Hi and welcome to the working songwriter, the show where today's best songwriters come to Talk Shop.

I'm your host, Joe Pug.

Each episode here, we host a distinguished guest, and we ask them to go deep on their

inspiration, on their process, on the general ups and downs of making a life in music.

So, whether you're a grizzled veteran attempting to cravenly release EDM songs under a

pseudonym, or else, a scrappy upstart, brazenly declaring that you'll never sell the publishing

of a catalog that no one has ever offered to buy, this is your show. Because ultimately it is what every writer seeks most.

An ironclad excuse to put off actually writing.

Hey guys, it's the last Friday of April 2017, and I'm sad to say that this is the second month in a row that we must begin our show with a bit of a eulogy and a goodbye.

Let's hope this is the end of a trend for a while, at least, to begin the show on such a somber note.

But there are some people in this world that you just can't help but remember and recognize.

Susan Tanner was not a songwriter, but she devoted her life to being a tireless advocate for songwriters,

famous and obscure and everywhere in between.

So here's a brief account of her life from the music journal The Public, written by Donnie Cutsback.

Born and raised in western New York, Susan Tanner graduated from Eden Central and headed to Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where her love of music drew her to the campus-based

radio station W-A-R-C. From there, she headed to Philadelphia to work on an advanced degree in

neuroscience, but fate and the draw of rock and roll had other plans. She was offered an internship

with Miles Copeland's IRS records. She ended up with a

full-time job at the industry powerhouse Universal Records at just the time when Alternative Rock was

about to take over. At Universal, Susan was central in the ascendancy of alternative rock, flying across the world with teenage fan club,

and minding a Seattle band called Nirvana through press conferences and promotional appearances.

By the late 90s, the draw of home was tugging at her, with her parents still in Eden.

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