Suzanne Vega has completed work on Songs in Red and Gray, the follow-up to 1996's Nine Objects of Desire. The new album is due in record stores on September 24th.
Songs was produced by synth-pop pioneer Rupert Hine, who has worked with Tina Turner, Rush and Duncan Sheik in addition to the six albums he's released on his own. Hine's entry marks the end of Vega's two-album run with producer/ex-husband Mitchell Froom, who took the singer-songwriter into more experimental sonic terrain on 99.9 F (1992) and Nine Objects after her first three albums of folk-rock.
The lyrics to "Soap and Water" (among others) suggest that the split wasn't exactly amicable: "Soap and water take the day from my hand/Scrub the salt from my stinging skin/Slip me loose of this wedding band . . . Soap and water wash the year from my life/Straighten all that we trampled and tore/Heal the cut we call husband and wife."
Vega and bassist Mike Visceglia are currently showcasing the new material on a European tour, which wraps on August 4th. She will then return to the states for a twenty-nine date tour that begins on September 14th in Naples, Florida.
Songs in Red and Gray track listing:
Machine Ballerina
Harbor Song
(I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May
If I Were a Weapon
Last Year's Troubles
Penitent
Priscilla
Soap and Water
Solitaire
Song in Red and Gray
St. Claire
It Makes Me Wonder
Widow's Walk
Suzanne Vega tour dates:
9/14: Naples, FL, Philharmonic Center
9/15: Ft. Lauderdale, Au Rene Theater
10/4: Los Angeles, UCLA
10/5: San Luis Obispo, CA, Cal Poly Performing Arts Center
10/6: San Francisco, Warfield Theater
10/7: Cerritos, CA, Cerritos Center
10/17: Chicago, Park West
10/18: St. Louis, Sheldon Concert Hall
10/19: Milwaukee, Pitman Theater
10/20: Batavia, IL, Ramsey Auditorium
10/25: New York, Bowery Ballroom
10/26: Morristown, NJ, Community Theater
10/27: Englewood, NJ, John Harms Center
11/1: Harrisburg, PA, Whitaker Arts
11/2: Annapolis, MD, Ram's Head
11/3: Lebanon, NH, Lebanon Opera House
11/6-7: Alexandria, VA, Birchmere
11/10: Philadelphia, TBA
11/13: Portland, ME, State Theater
11/14: Boston, Berklee Performance Center
11/15: Portsmouth, NH, Music Hall
11/27: Pittsburgh, Rosebud
11/28: Cleveland, Odeon
11/29: Ann Arbor, MI, Michigan Theater
12/4: Cincinnati, Bogart's
12/5: Madison, WI, Barrymore Theater
12/6: St. Paul, MN, O'Shaugnessy Auditorium
12/14: Seattle, TBA
ANDREW DANSBY
(July 13, 2001)