SUZANNE VEGA’S AN EVENING OF NEW YORK SONGS AND STORIES DUE SEPTEMBER 11
SUZANNE VEGA
SUZANNE VEGA’S
AN EVENING OF NEW YORK SONGS AND STORIES DUE SEPTEMBER 11
SINGLES “WALK ON THE WILD SIDE” AND “NEW YORK IS MY DESTINATION” OUT NOW
RARE LIVESTREAM PERFORMANCE IN HONOR OF ESSENTIAL HEALTH CARE WORKERS ON JUNE 22
Grammy and Peabody Award-winning artist Suzanne Vega is set for the release of An Evening of New York Songs and Stories, September 11 via Amanuensis/Cooking Vinyl. 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 available now—pre-save the album and access the advance singles HERE.
On Monday, June 22, at 12 pm Eastern, Vega will perform a rare Livestream set in honor of New York City’s essential healthcare workers. The performance is part of the “Music for the Soul” series created by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, NYC Health + Hospitals, and AFM Local 802 to inspire the heroic medical community, connect isolated patients to the outside world and provide paid work for musicians. Details may be found HERE and the Livestream may be found HERE.
Of the album, Vega says, “It is always a pleasure to play at the Café Carlyle in New York City, where this album was recorded. It is a small exclusive club that has hosted legends from Eartha Kitt to Judy Collins and is also known to be the place where Jackie Kennedy met Audrey Hepburn. I love it for its bohemian old-world glamour! I decided 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, including “Walk on the Wild Side” by my late, great friend, Lou Reed—a song I rarely heard him sing himself.”
On An Evening of New York Songs and Stories, 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. 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.
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, including “Luka,” “Marlene on the Wall” and “Tom’s Diner,” an a cappella piece that was remixed by U.K. electronic dance duo DNA and became a major club hit. Her albums, including her self-titled debut, the follow up, Solitude Standing and 99.9F have sold millions of copies worldwide. 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
TRACKLIST
1. Marlene on the Wall
2. Luka
3. New York is a Woman
4. Frank and Ava
5. Gypsy
6. Freeze Tag
7. Pornographer’s Dream
8. New York Is My Destination
9. Walk on the Wild Side
10. Ludlow Street
11. Cracking
12. Some Journey
13. Tom’s Diner
14. Anniversary
15. Tombstone
16. Thin Man
