SUZANNE VEGA CELEBRATES NEW CAREER-SPANNING ALBUM WITH TWO LIVE SHOWS STREAMING FROM NYC’S
BLUE NOTE JAZZ CLUB OCTOBER 7 & 8
PARTNERING WITH OVER 80 INDEPENDENT
VENUES AND PROMOTERS IN SUPPORT OF
THE LIVE MUSIC INDUSTRYAN EVENING OF NEW YORK SONGS
In celebration of her just-released, career-spanning album, An Evening of New York Songs and Stories (out now on Amanuensis/Cooking Vinyl), Suzanne Vega will play two globally livestreamed concerts from New York City’s iconic Blue Note Jazz Club in Greenwich Village. The first will go live on October 7 at 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time for North American fans and the second will go live on October 8 at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, to accommodate U.K. and European audiences. In a gesture of support for the independent live music industry, currently facing the existential threat of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Vega has partnered on the shows with more than 70 independent venues and promoters in the United States and additional promoters and major festivals in Europe. Tickets for each show available HERE via Seated, a live events and live stream ticketing company—see below for details.
The full-band set will feature the album’s New York-centric repertoire, honoring Vega’s long musical relationship with her hometown. She will be joined on the Blue Note stage by longtime guitarist Gerry Leonard, bassist Jeff Allen and keyboardist Jason Hart.
Recorded live in early 2019 at New York’s Café Carlyle with Leonard, Allen and keyboardist Jamie Edwards, An Evening of New York Songs and Stories includes familiar songs like “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” alongside deep cuts from Vega’s catalog such as “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, her one-woman play about the Southern gothic novelist Carson McCullers. Produced by Leonard, mixed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Kevin Killen and mastered by Grammy Award winner Bob Ludwig, the album is available HERE, and the recently released video for Vega’s cover of Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wilde Side” is available to stream 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.
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.”
SUZANNE VEGA—LIVE FROM THE BLUE NOTE NEW YORK
October 7—9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time—TICKETS
October 8—3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time—TICKETS
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
