Susie Allanson

Susie Allanson (born March 17, 1952 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American country music singer and actress. As a singer, she released five studio albums and charted several singles on the Billboard and Cashbox country charts, including the No. 2 hit "We Belong Together". She also had top ten chart success with a cover of Buddy Holly's "Maybe Baby" and "Words" by the Bee Gees.

She grew up in Van Nuys, California and Las Vegas, where her youth was primarily centered on horses and music. At seventeen, her career began in musical theatre when she was cast as a lead in the National Touring Company of the rock musical Hair. A year later she was asked to be part of the original cast in the national concert premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar. She went on to perform as a principal player in the Los Angeles stage production of Superstar and appeared in the film as the 'Maid by the Fire'. In 1976 while training a young horse, she was thrown and fractured her neck. While still recovering in the hospital, she signed her first recording deal with ABC records. Soon after, she signed a production deal with Mike Curb and over the next several years recorded five albums for Warner/Curb, Liberty/Curb, Elektra Records and EMI. She had several charted country singles, including four top ten hits. Allanson appeared as a guest on many of the major television shows of the day including Hee Haw, Nashville Alive, Dinah Shore, and the Music City News Awards. She toured with and opened for such artists as The Oak Ridge Boys, Merle Haggard, and Hank Williams Jr., and recorded duets with Bill Medley and Delaney Bramlett. In 1979 she was named Billboard magazine's "Best New Female Singer" and won Country Radio Broadcasters' "New Faces of Country Music" award. Her early albums were produced by her husband Ray Ruff, whom she later divorced.

After her solo country recording career ended, she continued working as a studio singer on many film soundtracks and album projects. She also became involved in Christian music ministry, and in 1988 married producer/arranger/pianist Steve Williams. During the next few years she raised two children, Daniel and Amanda while continuing to lead worship and help other churches build their worship teams. Allanson has organized and directed children's choirs for special projects with Sheila E., MTV's Tsunami Relief, Steve Camp and ABC Television. She has contracted children's singing groups for films and radio commercials. Her songs have been recorded by award winning artists and have risen to the top five in the Christian Contemporary charts.

As Susie Williams, she has written five children's musicals for Brentwood Benson Music, including God of This City (co-written with David Ebensberger and Luke Gambill), which won the 2012 Dove Award for Youth/Children’s Musical of the Year. Her article on Children's Worship, The ABC's of Praise, can be found in Celeste Clydesdale's book, Just Add Kids. Also in 2012, under the name Susie Allanson Williams, she released her first solo recordings since 1987, three Christian/worship songs available online. Her most successful album, 1979's Heart to Heart, was also reissued in MP3 format in 2012.