Susan James

According to legend, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computers, saw Susan James playing in a club and asked if she had any recordings for sale. When she said no, he returned to her next performance and handed her 10,000 dollars to make a demo tape. Whether that's true or merely a fanciful invention for a press release, it's likely that the Orange County-based James is the only musician to play with both the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and the Replacements' Tommy Stinson. James, a skilled guitarist with a degree in ethnomusicology from U.C.L.A. in addition to being a fine singer/songwriter, released her first album, 1996's Shocking Pink Banana Seat, on the indie Red Letter Records. Her follow-up, Fantastic Voyage, was an intriguing experiment pairing one CD of vocal songs with another disc of guitar-based instrumentals built on drum loops from the vocal songs