Suzanne Vega at City Winery
October 10th, 2012 by Mr. C
One of NYC’s most underrated folk/pop singer/songwriters of our time- Suzanne Vega two stepped into the City Winery on Tuesday night for two performances to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of her most well known album – Solitude Standing. Vega’s vocals can be described as being gentle & soft, yet firm and clear to the bone. Some might even describe her voice as being monotone and boring but those who say that don’t truly understand the mood & artistic expression that she is trying to relay through by the use of her colorful palette amongst the words, metaphors, melody, & rhythm in order to paint a picture of her stories.
Suzanne Vega, an urban poet with clever uses of linguistics is not afraid to tackle topics like child abuse (Luka) or depression (Night Vision). She displays a side of humor and whim with Tom’s Diner and is not scared to show her softer side with a tribute to her love who moved back to England with the tune Gypsy. Another great song – Ironbound expresses her views on being bound and chained in the urban environment. Vega celebrated the Solitude Standing album by playing it in it’s entirety in the same order as released on the album. My favorite performances of the night included Tom’s Diner in the jazzy-funky arrangement, Queen and the Soldier, Solitude Standing, Gypsy, and Left of Center (Soundtrack from Pretty in Pink).
Some funny stories that Suzanne told that night included when the artist formerly known as Prince came to checkout her performance in the 1980’s at a club called 1st Avenue in Minnesota. Prince danced & pranced around to Luka which was the 4th song that she played that night and then Prince left the scene after Luka. Prince had asked later on if Vega wanted a private tour of his mansion!
Another story had Lenny Kaye (former guitarist of Patti Smith) and producer of Vega’s 1st two albums, trying to push Suzanne into finishing the writing for the Solitude Standing album in which he offered to write lyrics to some of the songs. Suzanne mentioned the lyrics he wrote were so bad, it motivated her to finish composing the album!
It was also very cool to hear SV belt out a song of her’s from the Breakfast Club soundtrack – Left of Center and another soundtrack (Tombstone) that she worked on in Eddie Murphy’s movie Haunted Mansion! These 2 tracks were some of the most fun and upbeat of the night!
Stephany Winters added a nice dimension to the sound with the cello and it was very cool to see/hear Hollywood actress Jil Hennessy providing backup vocals with one of the tunes! The guitar player was phenomenal turning it out on the remix of Tom’s Diner with some ambient and funky sounds coming out of his geeTar!
Big thanks to Jersey JoelNJdev for scoring some tickets to this celebration & benefit concert!
Set List
Tom’s Diner (acapella)
Luka
Ironbound
In the Eye
Night vision
Solitude Standing
Calypso
Language
Gypsy
Wooden Horse
Tom’s Diner (jazzy-funky remix)
Marlene on the wall
Left of Center (Breakfast Club)
Tombstone (Sound track from Eddie Murphy’s Haunted Mansion)
Blood Makes Noise
Some Journey
encore
Queen and the soldier
Rosemary
Tags: city winery, folk, suzanne vega
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