Susan Voelz was born and raised in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin in the United States. As a child, she discovered her grandfather’s violin and began to learn to play. Discovering in secondary school that the violin could be played in rock music and other genres of music opened up new possibilities, and encouraged her to continue practicing her craft. She also started to learn to play acoustic guitar besides the violin. After graduating high school, Voelz majored in English and in Music (Violin), graduating from Indiana University.
After relocating to Austin, Texas, she found herself in a musical environment, enabling her to work as a backing musician with John Mellencamp and Alejandro Escovedo among others. Voelz was offered work by the Hawaiian band Poi Dog Pondering, who had relocated to Austin, and were searching for a fiddler for their planned debut album. The combination clicked, and she has now contributed to 13 albums with the band.
As a solo artist, she released three albums: ’13 ribs’ (1994), ‘Summer Crashing’ (1995) and ‘Beautiful Life: Songs Of Prince Re-Imangined’ (2016). In 1999, she contributed a cover version of The Sensual World to the fan-made compilation album I Wanna Be Kate.
