From New York City! The rousing applause extended on as Suzanne Vega took position at her microphone and put on her black top hat. The spacious stage was sparse, consisting of only Vega and Gerry Leonard…her producer and guitarist.
The fans were attuned to Vega’s every gesture and utterance as she opened with her homage to Marlene Dictrich: Marlene on the Wall. Then right into 99.9 F° and her bossa nova inspired Caramel.
“Gracias. Estoy estudiando español.” was her first greetings to the crowd. Vega shared her use of Duolingo, drawing both laughs and applause. Poking fun at the app’s inaccuracies, she admitted to a slow start. Vega continued in English. She has such a relatable rapport. It is conversational and comfortable…
After playing Small Blue Thing, she played Gypsy, a song about her first romance. “Which was very short, not the man, the time we were together”. Next In Liverpool was part two of her teen romance journey. The song aired on the BBC when it was released and led to her reconnecting with her lost love interest. They are now friends.
Not to dwell on joyous endings, Vega sang The Queen and the Soldier. The imaginary and thought-provoking dialogue between a questioning soldier and his queen. Vega held everyone in rapt attention. At times, not a single cell phone camera was glowing.
Speaker’s Corner is a punchy new song where she sings about that sacred place in many cities that is fading away. “A corner where every person can stand up in public and speak… you can talk about poetry… talk about your politics….” Vega noted, “We must keep that speaker’s corner now to have it later…” The next new song was her punk commentary titled Rats. Lyrics drawn from increasing issues from true stories and observations of the out-of-control rat nuisance in NYC.
Ironically, in the middle of this blistering Spanish summer heat, she wore all black. Vega performed her song I Never Wear White. Inspired by having to address that question so often. She decided to write a song about it. You can take the singer out of New York but you can’t take New York out of the singer. Again, she was demonstrating that she is a quintessential New Yorker artist.
As the tour title stated, “old, new and others” Vega treated the audience to a wide variety of her songs as she has a long career of ever-morphing styles. You cannot pin her down. The continuity is not found in a single genre but rather in her impeccable musicianship and voice, mastery of melody and lyrics, and live arrangements that shimmer. A true performer.
Leonard’s playing freed Vega to set down the guitar and sing without her own accompaniment for some songs. But beyond that basic, he looped guitar rhythms and beats from tapping on his guitar. Combined with Vega’s powerful strumming, they created a full-band sound. Their longtime collaboration is apparent as the two blended so well.
Vega closed the set with Luka, then into a reinvented version of Tom’s Diner. The song that crowned her with the title as “the mother of MP3s” Nothing near her originally recorded version, this arrangement goes beyond the 1990 DNA remix.
Again Leonard’s guitar work provided a tasteful soundscape. While Vega sang “…as I’m listening to the bells of the cathedral…”, Leonard’s riff was brilliant and haunting. He reimagined those cathedral bells with space-guitar. Breaking away from her microphone stand, Vega rallied the crowd to clap, traversing from stage left to stage right ending the set on an energetic high.
Vega’s three song encore began with her version of Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side into the romping Tombstone and the more gentle song Rosemary.
A big contributor to Vega’s intelligent and inspirational music is informed by her love and study of literature. Other artists might use lyrics as a placeholder for melodies. With Vega the lyrics are poetry, social commentary and short stories. Intentionally crafted words to convey interesting thoughts, ideas and emotions. Many times, Vega introduces her songs with compelling backstories setting up the song’s tale and/or theme. Something few songwriters achieve at this level.
Vega taps into and connects with listeners at a deep level. This makes her live performances a communion of sorts. A celebrated commonality in shared humanity. 5 out of 5 stars.
Report by Phillip Solomonson
Article copyright ‘24/7 Valencia’
Suzanne Vega photos copyright Phillip Solomonson / ‘24/7 Valencia’
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