Susan Jacks

About

Susan Jacks (born Susan Pesklevits, 19 August 1948, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian singer/songwriter. Susan Jacks was born to a family of eight children in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Her family moved to British Columbia when she was 9. Jacks began her professional career at 15 when she was asked to be a regular performer on the national Canadian television show, Music Hop. She also appeared on several other national television shows and regularly did live performances in the British Columbia and Alberta areas. She recorded her first single with two other well known Vancouver performers, Howie Vickers and Tom Northcott, under the name of "The Eternal Triangle" In 1965, 17 year old Susan Pesklevits asked Terry Jacks to accompany her on guitar for an upcoming appearance. As they began performing more often, they added Craig McCaw on lead guitar and Susan eventually stopped performing as a solo artist and dedicated her time to the trio. Craig McCaw introduced Satwant Singh to the group and he soon joined the trio on tablas, forming The Poppy Family. Susan and Terry married in 1967. The group had a number of hits in 1969 and into the early 1970s. "Which Way You Goin' Billy?" sold over 3 million copies worldwide, hitting No. 1 in Canada and No. 2 in the United States. "That's Where I Went Wrong" and "Where Evil Grows' also charted well on Billboard. They consequently followed up with numerous hits in Canada. Terry released Satwant Singh and Craig McCaw from the group in 1970 and, although the name Poppy Family was still used, Susan essentially became a solo singer, with the exception of one or two duets with Terry. In 1972, Terry Jacks decided to drop the Poppy Family name and he and Susan recorded solo albums: Susan's album "I Thought of You Again" and Terry's album "Seasons In The Sun". Susan left the marriage in 1973 and resumed her solo career. She continued to have hits in Canada with songs including "Anna Marie", "Forever", "I Thought of You Again", "All The Tea in China", "Evergreen", "You Don't Know What Love Is", "I Want You To Love Me", "Build A Tower", "Love Has No Pride", and "Another Woman's Man". Susan's first solo album "I Thought of You Again" was released in 1973, the title single earning her a nomination for Canadian Female Vocalist of the Year. With the release of her "Dream" album in 1975, Susan was nominated again for her single "Anna Marie". Her 1980 "Ghosts" album garnered her another nomination with her single "All The Tea In China". In 1982 her Forever album was released. In 1977, Susan met former Canadian Football League player Ted Dushinski. They married in 1980 and had a son, Thad. The family moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1983 where she recorded the Juno-nominated song, "Another Woman's Man". She became a staff songwriter for a Nashville publishing company and has had several songs recorded, including a children's song on a Grammy nominated album entitled "A Child's Gift of Lullabyes". In 2004, Susan returned to Canada when her husband Ted (who died in 2005) was diagnosed with lung cancer. Upon returning, she was told she was in kidney failure and performed on a limited basis as her strength deteriorated. In 2010, Susan received a kidney transplant when her brother Billy donated a kidney to her. (Billy's name was used for her first hit with the Poppy Family "Which Way You Goin' Billy?"). A few months after the transplant, Susan was again on stage and on April 17, 2011 performed a benefit concert for the Kidney Foundation of Canada to raise awareness of the need for organ donation. The concert brought very favorable response for her return to the stage and she is now planning to tour across Canada in 2011 and 2012.Artist Description from Wikipedia, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license