Among her many accomplishments, as of late, are winning Kerrville New Folk, Mountain Stage New Song, Sisters Folk Festival, and Big Top Chautauqua’s Songwriter of the Year Award. Plus she was a featured songwriter at Nashville’s Tin Pan South.  Starbuck’s coffee houses even featured several of her tunes for nationwide in-store play, and Soo was also featured on NPR’s The Story. All nice stuff. She’s one of our favorite Austin ladies and this pint sized dynamo delivered big time at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck in Houston this night.

Snuggled right up front, Rose and I were able to take in her awesome singing and different, shall we say, sense of humor and perspectives on life. She had a set up with Todd Wilson on keys, “Mailman Dave” on drums, and Richard Bowen on outstanding fiddle. The fiddle used in place of lead guitar proved to be awesome and unique.

This lil lady grabs a hold of a crowd and runs with it effortlessly. She even made cookies-both healthy and un-healthy- and passed them out to the audience! Nice personal touch.

I found it most amazing how she could shift gears from ball busting to smokey ass blues pouring out of her soul. “Whispering My Name” was a stunner indeed and “Just Lie to Me” smoked. She even jabs at life in her lyrics like: “Truth is overrated-you can find it everywhere.” Plus, hit home lines like: “The friends that leave you remind you of the things that really mattered in the start”. Amen to that.

Her banter with the crowd went to another level when she spoke about her hometown of Spring, Texas, politics, and razzed her parents who were in attendance. Priceless schtick for sure. Had me belly laughin’! It had been 3-4 years since the fiddle dude played with BS, but you could never tell.

Per Ms.Soo, tonight’s set included a lot of West Texas and it was sweet as the unhealthy cookies she passed out! She put on her rockin’ shoes like she can and belted out “It’s Time to Get Clean” and a cool dedication to the folks in attendance with “What We’ve Got”.

The fitting encore of “Rivers of Texas” left the too small crowd very pleased. If you are not familiar with this crazy Korean’s brew of folksy roots music mixed with velvet soprano and a backdoor growl, GO catch her the next time she’s around.  As I was leaving I got me another hugaroo and told her: “All of five feet and full of sheet-in a good way!” She barked “I like that” and that’s Betty Soo for you! Until the next time I see ya, God Bless…