I was born in Oakland, California where I began to study violin at age 9, inspired by an old RCA Red Label 78 RPM of Fritz Kreisler playing Liebeslied, and by the violinist on the Lawrence Welk Show.  I studied classical music in school, but ran away many times to Berkeley (a staggering several miles distant), where my interest in traditional folk music began.  

In the late 60s I got together with Jim Bamford and Mac Benford and formed Dr. Humbead's New Tranquility String Band And Medicine Show, a seminal revival trio of American mountain string band music.  A highlight of Dr. Humbead's career was to appear alongside well-known bands such as Howlin' Wolf, Quicksilver Messenger Service and eccentric guitar magician John Fahey at the 11th Annual Berkeley Folk Festival.

At that time there was a large community of musicians living in Berkeley, and my house, known as "The Colby Street House," was the center of much music making and the exploration of mind altering elements characteristic of the era.

Mike Seeger, brother of well-known folk hero Pete Seeger, came to California from the East Coast and was blown away by all the traditional music being played almost 24 hours a day at The Colby Street House.  He recorded an album for Folkways called Berkeley Farms on which many of these musicians, including me, appeared.  Local gigs and a lot of busking got us all through those days of "free music for free money."

One summer I traveled to the east coast and entered and won first prize at the Pulaski, Virginia Old Time Fiddlers Convention, much to the amazement of all the good old boys in attendance.  While there, I also played on an album recorded by Janet Kerr of Leader Records in London entitled Blue Ridge Mountain Field Trip.

In 1970, I was featured in a cover article, "Sue The Street Fiddler," in the S.F. Chronicle's magazine supplement.  Around this time I met Joe Cooley, the great Irish button accordion player from Peterswell, South County Galway, who was living in San Francisco.  Together with other musicians (all disciples of Joe) we formed the Gruneog Ceilidh Band, and performed Saturday nights at Harrington's Bar in SF.  This was a great turning point in my focus: Irish music became definitely it...the best.

Feeling adventurous, later in 1970, I traveled to the U.K. to meet and play with musicians over there.  Shortly after arriving I was introduced to John Renbourn who was recording at Livingston Studio, working with Bill Leader.  He was delighted to meet an American fiddler and asked me to play on some tracks for his album later entitled Faro Annie.  Melody Maker thought it would be interesting to do a story on "the blonde fiddler from California," so Andrew Means wrote an article entitled "If You Knew Susie."

This brought me to the attention of Ashley Hutchings who was forming a new group at the time.  I then became the fiddler for the first incarnation of the Albion Band.  The lineup was Simon Nicol, Dave Mattacks (both ex-Fairport) along with Ashley Hutchings and Royston Wood (ex-Young Tradition) and Steve Ashley.  Many field recordings were made of this group, but alas, no studio tapes.  Several cuts do appear on various volumes of Ashley Hutchings' The Guv'nor CDs, and it is rumored that smatterings of this material will be released otherwise as well.

After the break-up of this lineup I started working with John Renbourn, the amazing British guitar wizard.  We formed The John Renbourn Group along with Jacqui McShee, Tony Roberts and Keshav Sathe, and recorded A Maid In Bedlam.  The group toured for five years in France, Germany, Denmark and Holland.  I also played on Richard Thompson's first album Henry the Human Fly and on John Martyn's early album Solid Air.

In 1977 I returned to the states and joined the all-women group Any Old Time String Band.  We recorded two albums, Any Old Time String Band on Arhoolie Records and Any Old Time on Bay Records.  Both have recently been re-released on a single CD produced by Arhoolie Records.

After that I returned for a time to playing classical music, and freelanced in several Bay Area /Northern California regional orchestras and The Lamplighters, a Gilbert and Sullivan troupe.  I also toured with Western Opera Theatre for a number of seasons.  I continue to perform classical and baroque music occasionally in various groups on the freelance circuit.

In 1999 I joined the Celtic folk band Golden Bough and reconnected with my greatest musical love—the music and tunes of the British Isles.   Early in 2001, I received a call from Lief Sorbye to sit in on some acoustic Celtic music performances in Caliban, and the chemistry was fantastic!  As a result, I also joined Lief's electric Celtic-rock band, Tempest, and had a great time touring and recording with the band through 2003.  At the end of the year, I decided to go on to other projects, and waved goodbye to Tempest, but I continue to play with Lief in Caliban when I can.

I live in Oakland and enjoy working in my beautiful garden, assisted by my two charming baby kitties, Oscar and Ella, and my wonderful husband, the talented cellist, Paul Hale.