SUSTO - Rogue Acoustic (Live from the Royal American, Charleston, SC / 2020) (2021) Hi-Res

SUSTO have announced a solo acoustic album at The Royal American, joined by Mel Washington and Fleur Girl (formerly Tom Angst). The performance was recorded and released as a live album titled "Rogue Acoustic". Justin Osborne will perform songs off all three SUSTO albums: SUSTO, & I’m Fine Today, and Ever Since I Lost My Mind. Justin will also debut “several new songs” at this show.

There are few better venues, if any, for a SUSTO show than The Royal American. When SUSTO was just getting started, Justin worked in the kitchen there, and the band has played there consistently over the years. Even after breaking out of the Charleston music scene and finding a national audience, SUSTO still returns to Royal. When they play there nowadays, it’s always packed with familiar faces, and it feels like a homecoming reunion party. This time the setting will be more intimate, and Justin will most certainly have some stories to tell.

“When I started touring as SUSTO, it was primarily as a solo artist, just me and my guitar,” Justin explains. “There was something about the connection I felt with the audience during these shows; it’s different when it’s just you and them. A dialogue starts to develop, and the whole experience takes on the feeling of a good, extensive conversation. To me that’s always been a very special sort of performance, and my goal with Rogue Acoustic is to return to that and capture this type of connection in the best way possible.”

The connection that Justin is hoping for a return to can be heard best on SUSTO’s 2015 release Live From The Australian Country Music Hall of Fame, which was recorded at the downtown Charleston house where SUSTO was formed. In 2017 SUSTO released a stripped-down album of & I’m Fine Today songs called SUSTO Stories, which has a similar vibe to that 2015 live album. Rogue Acostic will probably fit the vibe of those two albums, but with a few more years of experience behind it.