Download the Electronic Press Kit (EPK) for Sue Palmer&Her Motel Swing Orchestra.

Perhaps one of our best shows is our Mardi Gras show. We have been a fixture at the great San Diego festival, Gator By the Bay for over 10 years. This festival is the closest we ever get to the New Orleans celebrations, in San Diego. We can celebrate Carnival Time with the best of them!!!

Listen to:
Lovey Dovey
Beignets & Bourbon

Sue has appeared in numerous solo Boogie shows, including several appearances at Berkeley, California's Freight&Salvadge, Dizzy's in San Diego, with the late Hadda Brooks (well known Queen of Boogie in the '40's and '50's), and the San Diego Art Museum. Sue's also played at Yoshi's in Oakland, the Arches Piano Stage in Cinncinnatti, the WCHandy Festival in Alabama, and Silvan Zingg's Boogie Woogie Show in Switzerland. Boogie woogie aficiondos rave about Sue. See the News Section of the website.

right: 4 Queens of Boogie Woogie: Doña Oxford, Wendy Dewitt, Lisa Otey and Sue at Dizzy's, February 26th, 2010. Photos by Hiro Izeki.

While most of Sue's repertoire falls around 1947, a little before and after WWII, some of them are more recognizable than others.

Listen to:
Mood Indigo
Your Mother's Son in Law
Down the Road Apiece
Tenderly
Sweet Lotus Blossom

Read more about these tunes...

In the years following the 2nd World War, the nitch between jazz and blues, presursors of rock and roll, was being filled by small piano combos fronted by female singers. These were performers who mixed boogie woogie, swing, ballads, and blues with sly, suggestive lyrics. All girl vocal groups were being disbanded, big bands were becoming too costly to maintain, and television was beginning to compete with every kind of entertainment. Stars such as Hadda Brooks, Camille Howard, and Julia Lee came to the forefront, while early R&B began developing with singers like LaVerne Baker, Ruth Brown, and Wynona Carr. Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and Nina Simone had popular hits on the Billboard charts also, in more of a jazz vein. Later blues stars and piano pounders Katie Webster and Jeannie Cheathem continued the lineage.

Sue can also provide a small intimate, jazzy, smaller group.
Video credit Andrea Dawson

Calling themselves "Madame Palmer&Les Pommes Frites," Sue plays the classic Edith Piaf number La Vie En Rose, Cole Porter's I Love Paris, and Sidney Bechet's Petite Fleur, among others. Dressing in berets and black skirts, Sue and her trio can flavor a room immediately.

including "Some Like It Hot" outfits and songs.

replete with flapper dresses and spats.

Listen to...
The Charleston
Sweet Sue
Black Beauty
Honky Tonk Train