Susan Toney's soul-stirring mix of rock, pop, folk, and blues is an intimate, poetic journey to the deep recesses of the heart and the soul. Toney discovered piano, guitar and the transcendent power of music at age two. After studying music formally, she bucked the lessons and family pressures, setting out to forge her own artistic identity. "I held on to my spirit like a wild stallion, refusing to be broken," she says. "My voice as an artist became a light to question fear, doubt, authority, and in the process find my own honesty, hope and faith."

Strange Child is a winding road of mesmerizing song craft that sounds both timeless and original. Toney's impassioned vocals yearn and plead with a raw emotion and edgy intensity, conspiring with the lucid awareness of her lyrics to touch the listener in the deeply personal ways that female singer-songwriter icons Carole King, Janis Ian and Joni Mitchell viscerally connected with their audiences. In " Carolina ", she sings: "This journey's deep as it is long/ Weave my heart my soul my songs/ Out of pieces make me whole and strong". Toney's quest is our own too, and even when dreams are tarnished by reality, there's still room for hope, trust, and love.

Toney enlists an A-list lineup of session players to complement her acoustic work on her 812-C: guitarists Jeff Pevar (David Crosby) and Greg Leisz (k.d. lang), bassist/ co-producer Chad Watson (Janis Ian), percussionist/vocalist Arno Lucas (Al Jarreau, Rickie Lee Jones), and keyboardist Skip Edwards (Dwight Yoakam). The rootsy, atmospheric swaths of electric guitar, pedal steel, dobro and Hammond B3 call to mind the sonic moods of Daniel Lanois, and make Toney's music even more emotionally palpable.

Toney has won awards in the American Songwriting Festival and the Billboard Songwriting Contest. In July 1994, she was honored as Artist of the Month by the National Association of Songwriters, Acoustic Underground. She was voted "Unsigned Artist of the Year" by "Music Connection" in 1996. Toney is sought after in songwriter circles as a co-writer and solo performer. "Just Don't Mention Love" is featured in the Miramax film, Little City, and "Without You" in Girl Talk.