Oh Susanna was the recording name of Canadian-American alt-country musician… Read Full Bio ↴Oh Susanna was the recording name of Canadian-American alt-country musician Suzie Ungerleider (born in Northampton, MA, and raised in Vancouver) from 1995 to 2021. Performing under the name Oh Susanna, alluding to the classic American folk song "Oh! Susanna" to protect her privacy, Ungerleider announced in 2021 that she was retiring the Oh Susanna stage name after learning more about the complicated racial history of the song "Oh! Susanna".

Ungerleider played her first show under the name Oh Susanna at the Railway Club in Vancouver in July 1995, and released her first independent recording, a seven-song EP, in 1997. Around this time, she decided to relocate to Toronto after attending Blue Rodeo's Stardust Picnic festival. In 1999, she released her full-length debut, Johnstown, and toured Canada and the United States with fellow musicians Veda Hille and Kinnie Starr, in what they dubbed the "Scrappy Bitch Tour".

At the 19th Genie Awards in 1999, she won the Genie Award for Best Original Song, for her song "River Blue" from the film The Fishing Trip. She subsequently released eight more recordings, Sleepy Little Sailor (2001), Oh Susanna (2003), Short Stories (2007), Soon the Birds (2011), Namedropper (2014), A Girl in Teen City (2017), and Decemberly (2018) a holiday EP with Michael Johnston.

In 2021, she announced that she was retiring the Oh Susanna stage name after learning more about the complicated racial history of the song "Oh! Susanna". She is now releasing under her own name.

Discography:
Oh Susanna EP (1997)
Johnstown (1999)
Sleepy Little Sailor (2001)
Oh Susanna (2003)
Short Stories (2007)
Soon The Birds (2011)
Namedropper (2014)
A Girl in Teen City (2017)
Decemberly (2018) (with Michael Johnston)

Jackson Wilson
Oh Susanna Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Medicine bottle

And a preachin' bone

Boxcar daughter

And a Blackfoot tombstone

Cheyenne slaughter

Up at Sandcreek Road

Standin' in the water

Full of six steel jacket holes

And it must be the ghost of a Jackson Wilson

Must be the ghost of Jackson Wilson

Must be the ghost of Jackson Wilson

Rattlin' the bones of old hooker Jim

Chickasaw rope

On the union plains

Captain Jack hung low

In the Mankato jail

Knockin' on the door

With a Colt '38

Sayin' "Did ya see Little Crow

Flyin' away Jane?"

It must be the ghost of Jackson Wilson

Must be the ghost of Jackson Wilson

Must be the ghost of Jackson Wilson

Rattlin' the bones of old hooker Jim

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Oh Susanna's song, Jackson Wilson, tell a haunting story full of historical references and violent acts. The first verse describes a scene by the Sand Creek Road where there is a medicine bottle, a preaching bone, a boxcar daughter, and a Blackfoot tombstone. The following line ("Cheyenne slaughter") alludes to a tragic event in American history known as the Sand Creek massacre, where a peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho village in Colorado was attacked by the US Army in 1864. The line "standing in the water, full of six steel jacket holes" implies that someone was shot and killed in the creek, possibly Jackson Wilson himself. The chorus suggests that the ghost of Jackson Wilson might be behind these eerie occurrences, "rattling the bones of old hooker Jim."

Line by Line Meaning

Medicine bottle
A vessel containing medicine

And a preachin' bone
A bone that does preaching

Boxcar daughter
A daughter of a boxcar

And a Blackfoot tombstone
A tombstone belonging to a Blackfoot

Cheyenne slaughter
A massacre of the Cheyenne people

Up at Sandcreek Road
At a road named Sandcreek

Standin' in the water
Standing in water

Full of six steel jacket holes
Having six holes made by bullets covered in steel

And it must be the ghost of a Jackson Wilson
It is believed that the ghost is Jackson Wilson's

Must be the ghost of Jackson Wilson
It is likely that the ghost is Jackson Wilson's

Must be the ghost of Jackson Wilson
It seems probable that the ghost is Jackson Wilson's