Ashby Frank
Suzanne
First Crossing (1999) Bluegrass Discography
“Suzanne” was written by Leonard Cohen and first published as a 1966 poem before being recorded by Cohen on his 1967 debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen. Cohen has said the song was inspired by his platonic friendship with Suzanne Verdal, the wife of Montreal sculptor Armand Vaillancourt; the lyric weaves together images of her riverside home, religious imagery (Jesus walking on water), and the broader Montreal mid-1960s bohemian setting.
The song crossed into folk-revival circles almost immediately and was widely covered by Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Nina Simone, and many others before crossing into bluegrass through the late-1970s and 1980s acoustic-revival channel. The version associated with this entry is Harley Allen and Mike Lilly’s 1985 reading, an acoustic duo recording that pulls the song into a closer-harmony bluegrass register.
The lyric’s three-verse structure (Suzanne, Jesus, Suzanne again) and the interleaved religious-and-romantic imagery make it harmonically and emotionally distinctive in the modern bluegrass songbook. It works as a slow-to-moderate vocal piece with a strong harmony slot, and it remains a useful entry point in any acoustic set looking for material from the Cohen songbook performed in a traditional-leaning way.