Cliff & Susan Biography
Cliff & Susan
Cliff & Susan
Imagine if Charlie Daniels married a female Jerry Lee Lewis.
That’s Cliff & Susan.
Cliff & Susan are a married country duo from Arkansas built around two unmistakable instruments: fiddle and keys.
Known for explosive musicianship, powerhouse harmonies, and a live show that turns rooms into dance floors, the pair have built their career the old-fashioned way — one stage, one song, and one audience at a time.
They don’t simply play shows. They host rooms.
From honky-tonks and theaters to festivals and international stages, Cliff & Susan create the kind of night where people stop watching and start participating. Their sound draws from classic country, western swing, rock & roll, blues, and Southern roots, but the identity is distinctly their own: dance-first country driven by fiddle, piano, chemistry, and joy.
Two Musicians. One Stage.
Cliff and Susan met onstage in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2016.
The musical chemistry was immediate.
So was everything else.
They formed their duo soon afterward and eloped in Las Vegas in 2017. What began as two musicians sharing a stage became a marriage, a touring partnership, and ultimately an independent music career that has taken them across the United States and internationally.
Today, Cliff & Susan perform more than 200 shows a year, bringing a level of musicianship and spontaneity forged through thousands of hours onstage together.
Their signature song, “Fiddle & Keys,” tells their story in musical form and earned them a national television performance on Huckabee. Their debut album, Fiddle & Keys, reached the Top 40 of the U.S. iTunes Country Albums Chart and established the fiddle-and-piano sound at the heart of their identity.
They have shared stages with artists including ZZ Top, Sawyer Brown, and Niko Moon, while building a fiercely loyal audience through years of relentless touring.
Award-Winning Independent Country
Cliff & Susan have become one of the most decorated independent country duos in Arkansas, earning back-to-back Entertainer of the Year and Vocal Duo/Group of the Year honors at the Arkansas Country Music Awards in 2025 and 2026.
Their major honors include:
2026 Arkansas Country Music Awards
- Entertainer of the Year
- Vocal Duo/Group of the Year
2025 Arkansas Country Music Awards
- Entertainer of the Year
- Vocal Duo/Group of the Year
- Album of the Year — Fiddle & Keys
At the 2025 Josie Music Awards at the Grand Ole Opry, they were named Best Vocal Duo — Country.
Their single “Spitfire” also earned Music Video of the Year at the Fayetteville Film Festival.
The back-to-back wins reinforce what audiences have already discovered on the road: Cliff & Susan are not simply a strong live duo. They are building one of the most distinctive independent country acts in the region, with national ambitions and a sound rooted unmistakably in guitar, fiddle, keys, chemistry, and the dance floor.
Come On In
Cliff & Susan are now entering their next chapter with Come On In, a new era centered around the thing their live audiences have taught them best:
Music is better when people experience it together.
The sound is warm, energetic, roots-driven and made to move — two-steps, shuffles, western swing, singalongs, piano, fiddle and songs designed for real rooms full of real people.
It's country music without the velvet rope.
No standing on the outside.
No passive listening.
Come on in.
The floor is open.
SUSAN ERWIN PROWSE BIOGRAPHY
Susan Erwin Prowse is an international performing artist whose true home is behind a piano. Known for her versatile and expressive voice, impressive skills as a multi-instrumentalist, and commanding yet deeply personal stage presence, Susan has a rare ability to make every person in the room feel seen, included, and part of the show.
Over a career spanning more than two decades, Susan has performed thousands of live shows across the United States, the Caribbean, and Europe. Her work now reaches national and international audiences as one half of the award-winning country duo Cliff & Susan, winners of multiple 2025 Arkansas Country Music Awards including Entertainer of the Year, Album of the Year (Fiddle & Keys), and Vocal Duo/Group of the Year, along with Best Vocal Duo – Country at the 2025 Josie Music Awards held at the Grand Ole Opry. Their debut album Fiddle & Keys charted Top 40 on the Apple (iTunes) Country Albums chart, and their music has been featured on national television, including an appearance on Huckabee performing their signature song “Fiddle & Keys.”
Beyond the stage, Susan is increasingly recognized as a creative entrepreneur and community builder. She co-owns Big Red Dog Productions and has been honored by Arkansas Money & Politics as one of its 2025 Trailblazing Women in Arkansas and as a 2025 Achiever in Their Forties, spotlighting her leadership in both music and business. She is also active in festival and event production, helping develop platforms that elevate independent artists across Arkansas and beyond.
Susan began her professional music career in 2003 in the Midwestern United States. From Little Rock, Arkansas and Branson, Missouri to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and beyond, she steadily built a reputation as a high-energy, emotionally connected live performer. In 2010, she began touring internationally each year, performing in venues throughout the Caribbean and Europe.
In October 2015, Susan launched her signature Pink Piano Show, which became a fan favorite and long-running success during race season at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs, Arkansas. That residency helped cement her reputation as a performer capable of commanding rooms night after night with originality, musicianship, and audience connection.
As a recording artist, Susan released her first self-produced 12-song original album Painting You Gone out of Nashville in 2014. In 2016, she followed with the EP Ain’t My Baby Grand, recorded at Beaird Music Group in Nashville, Tennessee. Her songwriting and recordings reflect the same emotional honesty and storytelling that define her live performances.
Early Career & Background
Susan discovered her passion for music growing up in Magnet Cove, Arkansas, a small southern town where she was raised on her parents’ 250-acre farm. She began classical piano lessons as a child and soon found herself performing in churches, pageants, and talent competitions. In high school, she graduated as Class President, Valedictorian, and a four-sport athlete.
She attended the University of Central Arkansas, where she was a member of the Honors College, performed in the university jazz band, and served as President of Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority, Upsilon Chapter. Susan competed in the Miss Arkansas Pageant as Miss University of Central Arkansas and later as Miss Saline River.
After graduating with honors and a degree in Pure Mathematics, Susan began a career as a Radio Frequency Engineer with Alltel Telecommunications. She also earned her Private Pilot’s License in June 2009 at Central Flying in Little Rock, Arkansas. Despite success in the corporate world, music remained her calling.
In a calculated leap of faith, Susan left her engineering career to pursue music full time. After working her way through piano bars, Branson theater shows, and a lucrative house gig in Los Angeles, she relocated to Las Vegas in 2011. There, her risk paid off, marking a turning point where her lifelong dedication to music became a full-fledged, sustainable career.
Today, Susan’s work blends elite musicianship with heart-forward storytelling, leadership, and community building. Whether performing solo or alongside her husband and creative partner Cliff, she continues to build a career defined not by trends, but by connection, consistency, and the belief that live music is meant to bring people together.
CLIFF PROWSE BIOGRAPHY
Cliff Prowse is an Arkansas-born singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who was quite literally born into music. From tapping in time as a baby to mastering multiple instruments at a young age, music has always been his native language. Cliff comes by it honestly. His father, Philip Prowse, is a successful singer and songwriter and one of the original members and guitarists of the nationally recognized rock band Tragikly White.
At age three, Cliff was given his first drum set, and by age ten he began violin lessons with renowned instructor Tommy Henderson, launching what would become a lifelong devotion to the fiddle. Today, Cliff is a true multi-instrumentalist, proficient on fiddle, electric and acoustic guitar, bass, drums, mandolin, and more, with a reputation for musicianship that serves the song first and the spotlight second.
Cliff’s distinctive voice, musical versatility, and deep respect for tradition have taken him from winning fiddle competitions and People’s Choice awards at the legendary Mountain View, Arkansas folk festivals to sharing stages and rounds with A-list players across the country. His journey has included work as a Nashville Music Row session musician and years as an international touring artist, earning him recognition as one of the most respected fiddlers and instrumentalists in his region.
In 2018, Cliff was nominated for Arkansas Country Music Awards Fiddler of the Year, a reflection of both his technical excellence and emotional command of the instrument. On fiddle, he has shared the stage with Charlie Daniels, whose influence is deeply woven into Cliff’s approach to performance and storytelling. Additional fiddle influences include Britt Curry (former fiddle player for Alan Jackson, Rascal Flatts, and Blake Shelton) and Tim Crouch, one of Nashville’s most legendary A-list session players.
As a guitarist, Cliff draws inspiration from country greats such as Brad Paisley, Brent Mason, and Albert Lee, while his rock and blues influences include Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Healey, Joe Bonamassa, and, most personally, his father. This wide-ranging influence gives Cliff a rare ability to move seamlessly between genres while maintaining a signature sound that feels both rooted and electric.
Cliff is also a highly versatile songwriter and producer, with a catalog that spans country, bluegrass, rock, pop, and gospel. As a producer, he co-produced Cliff & Susan’s award-winning debut album Fiddle & Keys. The album went on to win Album of the Year at the 2025 Arkansas Country Music Awards and charted Top 40 on the Apple (iTunes) Country Albums chart. Cliff has also been nominated at the Arkansas Country Music Awards for Music Producer of the Year, further underscoring his behind-the-scenes impact on modern country recordings.
With Cliff & Susan, he has earned three major 2025 Arkansas Country Music Awards: Entertainer of the Year, Vocal Duo/Group of the Year, and Album of the Year for Fiddle & Keys. The duo was also honored with Best Vocal Duo – Country at the 2025 Josie Music Awards held at the Grand Ole Opry. Their work has drawn multiple Josie Music Awards nominations and has been featured on national television, including a performance of “Fiddle & Keys” on Huckabee, helping establish Cliff as a standout modern country fiddler and bandleader.
Today, Cliff continues to write, arrange, produce, provide session work, and perform worldwide alongside his wife and creative partner Susan Erwin Prowse as one half of the award-winning duo Cliff & Susan. Together, they are known for their high-energy, musicianship-forward live shows, their signature fiddle-and-keys sound, and their ability to turn every room into a shared musical experience rooted in connection, movement, and joy.