At the age of 5, Suzy began singing in the Angel Choir of the College Avenue Presbyterian Church in her hometown. With the encouragement of her parents, she took lessons in piano and drums, and as a teenager picked up the guitar as well. She starred in several musicals at Aledo High School, where she was crowned homecoming queen during her senior year. After graduating in 1975, she enrolled at Illinois Wesleyan University, but later transferred to Illinois State University, graduating in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in metalsmithing. While in college, Bogguss sang and played guitar in local coffeehouses, and after graduating became a regular on the club circuit in the Quad Cities area, performing frequently in Davenport, Rock Island, Kewanee and Peoria. In 1980, she began touring the United States, and produced her first independent album, Suzy, on the Old Shack Recording label. This LP was available for purchase at her shows and is now considered to be a rare collector's item.

In 1985, Bogguss moved to Nashville, where she worked as a demo singer by day and played in clubs at night. The following year, she became the first featured female performer at Dollywood, a theme park owned by country music legend Dolly Parton This prompted her to produce an eponymous demo cassette, which she sold at her Dollywood shows. During this time she met songwriter and future husband Doug Crider, who penned one of the songs on the demo. Eventually, the demo caught the attention of a record label executive Jim Foglesong, who offered her a recording contract on the Liberty/Capitol Nashville label. In 1987, Bogguss released her first singles on the Liberty/Capitol label. Of these ("I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire," "Love Will Never Slip Away," and "Come as You Were"), two succeeded in making the lower reaches of the country music charts, but were left off her first LP, Somewhere Between, in March, 1989. The album, with its blend of traditional and contemporary styles, drew positive reviews, and Bogguss finally struck gold when the record's second single, "Cross My Broken Heart" became a top twenty hit on the country music charts. Following its success, she was named the Academy of Country Music's Top New Female Vocalist.

For her second album, Moment of Truth, production tasks were taken over by new label-head and Nashville heavyweight Jimmy Bowen, who moved Bogguss's sound in a more polished direction. However, the album's two singles failed to rise beyond the lower reaches of the Billboard charts. A duet she recorded with Lee Greenwood, "Hopelessly Yours," went to #12 on the country singles chart and received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Vocal Collaboration.

In 1991 Bogguss released the platinum-selling Aces. The LP yielded four hit singles - "Someday Soon," "Outbound Plane," "Aces," and "Letting Go," the latter three all reaching the country Top Ten. The following year, the Country Music Association recognized her achievements by giving her its Horizon Award, awarded annually to the artist who has demonstrated the most significant creative growth and development. Her 1992 follow-up, Voices in the Wind, earned Bogguss her second straight gold record. The album's first single, a cover of John Hiatt's "Drive South", just missed the #1 spot but gave Bogguss the highest-charting hit of her career to date. Her streak continued the following year with another gold record, Something Up My Sleeve, giving her two additional Top Five hits in "Just Like the Weather" and "Hey Cinderella". The latter, which she cowrote with Matraca Berg and Gary Harrison, has gone on to become one of Bogguss's trademark songs.

After the successes of those two years, Bogguss changed direction, parting with Bowen, who had produced her four previous albums. Her 1994 release, Simpatico, was a low-key album of duets with long-time friend and guitar legend Chet Atkins. The same year, Bogguss's Greatest Hits album was released and went gold.

Not long after Simpatico was recorded, Bogguss temporarily set her music aside to start a family. Bogguss and Crider's first child, Benton Charles Crider, was born on March 17, 1995. Sixteen months later, she was back with her sixth solo album, entitled Give Me Some Wheels. During her hiatus, the climate of country music had changed considerably, with more pop-oriented female singers such as Martina McBride, Faith Hill and Shania Twain dominating the charts.

In May, 1999, Bogguss found a new home with Nashville-based fledgling label Platinum Records, headed by chief George Collier, who had formerly worked at Capitol. Within three months, she had released her debut, a self-titled album. In 2001, Bogguss decided to form her own record label, Loyal Dutchess. Its first release was the album Live at Caffé Milano. In March, 2003, Bogguss and her own Loyal Dutchess Records label secured a deal with Compadre Records. Her first release on this label was the pure Western swing album, Swing, that she had been recording with producer Ray Benson. Although the album saw only lukewarm sales, it was a critical success.