Cliff & Susan release first LP: ‘Fiddle & Keys’
It came as a bit of a shock to learn that “Fiddle & Keys” is the debut album by Little Rock musical couple Cliff and Susan Erwin Prowse. The pair have been performing around here and beyond for years, and one just figured that they’d had an album or two under their belts.
But no. This is their first as a couple — they record and perform as Cliff & Susan — and it’s loaded with radio-ready, country bangers like the early single “Neon Dreams,” “Better Than a Country Song,” the fast-paced “High and Dry,” and the high-energy title track, which could also be known as The Ballad of Cliff & Susan, and shows off Cliff’s prowess with a fiddle and Susan’s boogie-woogie piano skills.
“We really needed time to find our sound,” Susan says of their patient approach to making the album. “We wanted to allow ourselves the time to do it right.”
The couple started dating seven years ago and married a year later. They’re working musicians, performing up to 200 shows a year including regular gigs at Willy D’s Rock N Roll Piano Bar (which is where they met and Susan is co-entertainment director and marketing director) and a residency at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs.
Beyond Arkansas’ borders they spend every November performing six nights a week at The Red Piano, a venue in St. Martin in the Caribbean. Offstage they produce the annual Yadaloo Music & Arts Festival in North Little Rock, help market and book entertainment for the Pulaski County Fair and co-founded the Entertainers Academy, which helps indie artists make their way in the music industry.
“We want to be involved as much as we can,” says Susan, who is originally from Magnet Cove. “Helping each other rise together is one of our biggest missions.”
In June they were nominated for three Arkansas Country Music Awards — Vocal Duo/Group of the Year, Promoter of the Year and Podcast of the Year, winning the latter category with the duo Ten Penny Gypsy.
All the while they’ve been working on their own music. Cliff, who has produced several local artists, including former “The Voice” contestant Andrew Igbokidi and Trey Pendley’s “Daddy’s Song,” which won Song of the Year at the 2023 Arkansas Country Music Awards, produced and arranged most of the tracks on “Fiddle & Keys” at the couple’s home studio. He also played almost all of the instruments on the album. The approach is straightforward, without a lot of additional flourishes, and lines up with the duo’s live show. It’s something Susan learned after another recording project.
Before she met Cliff she recorded “Painting You Gone,” a 12-song album of bluesy pop from 2015. The record was heavily produced, with lots of horns and backing vocals that made it difficult to incorporate into what she was doing onstage.
“When I went to perform — and most of my shows were in piano bars, but I wanted to integrate my original music — it felt disjointed,” she says. “Our live show is our flagship product, so Cliff and I said, let’s make sure we nail our brand and we know who we are. This translates live to our show with a full band so that we can really put on what you hear on the album.”
The couple, who trade off on lead vocals, wrote or cowrote nine of the 12 tracks on “Fiddle & Keys.” The boot-scootin’ “Driving Me Crazy” was written by Cliff’s dad, Philip Prowse.
“He wrote it before I was born,” says Cliff, who grew up in North Little Rock. “I actually have the cassette tape demo he recorded a long time ago. It fits our style, that honky-tonk, swing-dancing style and sound. We really liked it.”
An album release show is set for Jan. 11 at Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack. Until then there are more gigs and opportunities to get their music out into the world.
Susan says they are planning a crowdfunding effort for record and CD versions of “Fiddle & Keys,” and the pair are collaborating with Nashville singer-songwriter Erin Enderlin, a Conway native, on a trio of singles — “Last Call,” written by Enderlin, Cliff’s “Lonesome Cold as You” and “Petit Jean,” written by the three of them — which should start rolling out sometime in December.
“We’re thankful that we can invest in ourselves,” she says. “To me, success is doing what you love full time and being able to grow in that.”