Suzanne Vega; photo credit: George Holz
New Suzanne Vega Video Available Now
New Video from Upcoming Suzanne Vega Album Available Now
Grammy and Peabody Award-winning artist Suzanne Vega has released a new album on September 11 called An Evening of New York Songs and Stories, and a new lyric video for her cover of Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” off the new album is available now. Check out the video HERE.
On the new 16 track album, Vega is backed by longtime guitarist and musical director Gerry Leonard, bassist Jeff Allen and keyboardist Jamie Edwards. Recorded in early 2019, the album includes familiar songs like “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” and deep cuts from her catalog like “Frank and Ava” and “Ludlow Street.” The mix of repertoire also features “New York Is My Destination” from Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers, Vega’s one-woman play about the Southern gothic novelist Carson McCullers.
The album, which was recorded live at the Café Carlyle in New York City, features Vega’s most New York-centric repertoire in a celebration of her long personal and musical relationship with the city. The album’s first two singles, “Walk on the Wild Side” and “New York Is My Destination,” are already streaming and available for download. “Lou Reed was the first artist I saw live in concert,” says Vega, “and encountering his music changed my way of writing songs. Suddenly I knew I had complete freedom as a songwriter and nothing was forbidden.” Of the album, Vega said it is always a pleasure to play at the Café Carlyle and that she loves bohemian old-world glamour, deciding that it would be fun to perform a New York-themed show there with songs inspired by New York City or for which New York provided the backdrop.
The small exclusive club has hosted legends from Eartha Kitt to Judy Collins, and is also known to be the place where Jackie Kennedy met Audrey Hepburn.
Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation, Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has written and recorded numerous songs that have become part of the contemporary music vernacular, however Vega was most recently seen in the cast of the Off-Broadway production Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, where her performance earned praise from The New York Times as “brandy-voiced…a delightful, smoothly sardonic presence.”
An Evening of New York Songs and Stories is produced by Leonard, mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Kevin Killen and mastered by Grammy Award winner Bob Ludwig avia Amanuensis/Cooking Vinyl. Pre-save the album and access the advance singles HERE.
