Premiere: Suzannah Johannes continues her return with ‘Colleen Part 1’

Suzannah Johannes. // photo credit Jackie Hosey and Chris Lorenzen

It has been a good long moment since we last heard new recordings from Lawrence singer-songwriter Suzannah Johannes. In spring of 2007, Johannes won KJHK’s Farmer’s Ball battle of the bands and with the recording time she received as a prize, the up-and-coming singer-songwriter released a debut self-titled EP the following year on Range Life Records. A CMJ showcase performance sponsored by Saddle Creek and a couple of well-received Daytrotter sessions followed and then, nothing, for a good long while.

Johannes started playing live here and there as a solo performer a few years back, occasionally backed by a pickup band of whomever among her musician friends was available, but it’s been over 15 years since the musician has released anything.

That all changes this August, when Johannes releases her first-ever full-length, Kansas City: Hanz Bronze Boulevard, with another one, Los Angeles: The Missing Album, due out in January 2026. Kansas City features contributions from Jimmy Fitzner, John Nichols, and Mike Stover of The Grisly Hand, Bill Dolan from 5ive Style, and Brooke and Mike Tuley of Brooke Tuley and the Moontravelers and Ad Astra Per Aspera, among others, and we’re excited to premiere its latest single, “Colleen Part 1,” below, along with the story of how this all came to be. Take a listen and read our interview with Suzannah Johannes below.

Kansas City album cover. // image courtesy the artist

What brought this all about is less exciting than one might think, but utterly Midwestern in how wholesome in how it came to be. After getting a job, then getting pregnant, then getting married, Johannes focused on her career and motherhood and marriage, and says she doesn’t know that she even would’ve gone back to music, but then, a friend reached out.

“I remember Jeff Stoltz was like, ‘I’ll play drums for you,’” says Johannes over coffee at her Lawrence home. With one offer, the Lawrence musician of Drakkar Sauna, Frightened Stag, and 95 Sweetbird fame made it happen. “’Why don’t we get a band together?’ That’s why I started back up in the last three or four years, ’cause like Jeff Stoltz and a few different people would encourage me to play.”

Making what she delicately refers to as “some personal changes” has allowed Johannes some free time, so last year, she was trying to do something big every month and told herself she’d only say yes to music.

“My birthday is August 25,” Johannes recalls. “I asked myself, ‘If you could have anything in the realm of possibility, what would you want to have?’ and my decision was a recording.”

So, she asked Brooke and Mike Tuley if she could record with them, having become better friends with them and being impressed with the way they’d recorded Brooke Tuley & the Moon Travelers’ Chase Me in their home studio.

“They were like, ‘Sure!’ and then they have these musicians they worked with on that album,” continues the musician. However, despite plans to record in August, drummer John Kraft couldn’t do it, as he was out of town so it was going to be postponed.

“When that happened, I emailed Josh Adams,” Johannes says of the former Ghosty and Snuff Jazz drummer who’s since gone on to Los Angeles studio work. “He was touring with Cat Power at the time, for her Bob Dylan international tour. This whole thing for me was like, ‘I’ll just ask and they can say no.’”

Johannes emailed Adams and asked if there was any chance he’d come back, with the drummer responding that he’d love a break after the tour, so Johannes bought his plane ticket. Once he signed up, Mike Tuley thought it might be a better idea to move to a studio, so they booked Weights & Measures, which then set a bunch of other things in motion.

“I asked David Wetzel, who was also in Ghosty,” laughs Johannes. “Those early recordings we recorded at Black Lodge, it was always like me, David, and Josh, so that was cool ’cause it was like they’ve been ‘the people.’”

It was all unexpected. The musicians didn’t really practice as a band at all, so all the songs that appear on Kansas City are the second or third take of four times they’d ever played the song. Additionally, the majority of the songs were written by Hans Bronze, a longtime friend of Johannes, although given her delivery and the seemingly personal nature of the lyrics and how they could possibly relate to her life, it comes as quite a surprise to learn.

“I was gonna record in August, in July we decided this,” Johannes says. “So then I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll just do Hans’ songs, ’cause I love all his songs,’ and it was gonna happen so quickly, I haven’t written a ton of songs or anything.”

Suzannah Johannes. // photo credit Jackie Hosey and Chris Lorenzen

Johannes has a box of mix CDs from Hans back from her time in college and it all had these songs in it.

“I’ve loved these songs for a long time and I always thought that he should get more attention,” Johannes enthuses. “It was beneficial for me ’cause I could do something and get going again but also, I hope that it brings some wider visibility to his songwriting. ’cause I think he’s really talented.”

The involvement of 5ive Style’s Bill Dolan came about because Fitzner mentioned he was going to do “a Bill Dolan thing” on the recordings, and wished he could see Dolan play.

“So I was like, ‘Well, I’m gonna email him tomorrow,’” states Johannes, like it’s no big deal to cold message a musician you’ve never met via Facebook to ask them to come play a show in Kansas City because the bassist on your album wants to see him play.

“I was like, ‘Would you come play a show here?’” the musician remembers. “And then I said, ‘And I’m recording an album, would you consider playing on the album?’ He messaged me back and he was like, ‘My experience playing shows like that doesn’t always add up, but I am interested in this album.’”

Johannes sent Dolan the demos, and after the Kansas City recording was done at Weights & Measures, Bill Dolan added parts to it that he recorded in outside of Chicago.

“I guess that’s something that’s kind of clicked for me in the past year or so–they can always say no,” admits Johannes. “There’s no harm in asking.”

It’s a beautiful thing to think that this whole project came about from Suzannah Johannes being in contact with all of these people over the years. Songs off old mix CDs from friends and musicians that she’s played with off and on for so long feels very organic.

“I feel very lucky,” Johannes admits. “But maybe now is the right time for all of this stuff because I have a little bit more time, a little bit more energy, and I’m hopefully a little bit more mature. It’s freeing in a way. I am gonna be 43 this year and it’s like, I’m not cool. Me and the people I play with, we’re all pretty much middle-aged people with families and kids and other bands and like, this is for me. I don’t care if it’s for you.”

Suzannah Johannes’ Kansas City: Hanz Bronze Boulevard is out Friday, August 29, and can be pre-ordered here. Johannes plays Saturday, July 19 at Hillsiders. Details on that show here.Colleen Part 1