With each new album, Suzanne Vega gets stronger. Days Open Hand is her hardest and loveliest music yet; it is distinguished by a prayerful intensity and a clean, sharp intelligence that announce a young artist fully come into her own... With Days, Vega assumes her place in the folk tradition as an individual talent. Bob Dylan did it when he moved from the offhand plain speaking of folk songs into a denser folk rock... Vega's record takes a similar leap; she's now beyond borders, making an unaffected art music that's heady, heartfelt, very demanding - and very rewarding... Suzanne Vega's Days Of Open Hand is music on the edges - the edges of redemptive meaning, tears and wisdom.This view was shared around the world: From Britain: "Suzanne Vega records sound like clear pools of sound" (N.M.E); "A beautiful record" (Sounds); "Vega is still unrivaled" (Q). Also, Germany's leading Stern Magazine called her "the woman who fell from heaven"; Holland's Language: "With her third album Days Of Open Hand, Suzanne Vega has evolved into one of the clearest, most poetic voices of the nineties"; Australia's X-Press: "The soft-spoken wiz-kid from New York has come of age with this one... Suzanne has... moved into a world of high-tech production and incredibly intricate arrangements, so successfully as to make Days of Open Hand her best album to date"; and Italy's La Republica: "One could be tempted to say she is the best... extremely precise and detailed work... her unmistakable touch stretches from her physical appearance to the elegant album cover and ends up resounding in all the 11 songs on the record."
This universal acclaim culminated on January 10, 1991 with the announcement by NARAS that "Days Of Open Hand" had been nominated for two Grammy Awards: Best Contemporary Folk Recording, and Best Album Package.
In support of the album, Suzanne toured the world in 1990: the U.S., Canada, Europe (including Prague, Budapest, East Berlin, Zagreb, and Belgrade - her first shows ever in Eastern Europe) and Japan. The reception was very gratifying (see U.S. reviews on attached Pollstar ad; in this magazine on the last page), and was shared by audiences and critics worldwide: Suzanne "is quietly powerful, witty and well-sussed, and sings extraordinarily perceptive songs as sweetly as an orphaned angel" (Melody Maker - UK); "Sensitivity, naturalness, sense of humor, brains and the strength of poetic intuition were the weapons with which Suzanne Vega made the whole audience spellbound" (Helsingen Sanomat - Finland)
Another surprise in 1990 was the emergence of a dance remix of Suzanne's a-capella recording "Tom's Diner" as an international hit. The remix, which was done by two enterprising Londoners who go by the name DNA, has been a Top Five Single in virtually every major market worldwide, including #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, #2 in U.K., and #1 on the German charts for an incredible 7 weeks. This single spawned cover versions all over the world, of every variety - dance, reggae, children's, rap, parody... Many of these are being collected for release in September 1991 on a compilation album, "Tom's Album," that will also include a bonus track; a remix by DNA of Suzanne's Rusted Pipe from Days of Open Hand.
The first half of 1991 has seen Suzanne busy making several benefit and tribute appearances in support of various causes. She's appeared at Princeton University in support of the Nuclear Disarmament movement, at Canada's Juno Awards participating in a tribute to Leonard Cohen, on Arista Records' Deadicated album - a tribute to the Grateful Dead that benefited the Rainforest Environmental Action Coalition, and New York's Hudson River Clearwater Festival, at a Brooklyn College Anti-Bigotry event, and a Guggenheim Museum event in support of an arts in the schools program for disadvantaged children, and others.
This summer, she will be making a few select solo appearances around the world, including the Cambridge Fok Festival (U.K.) on July 27, Dranouter Festival (Belgium) on Aug. 3, WOMAD Festivals in Seinajoki, Finland on Aug. 4 and Jokohama, Japan on Aug. 31, and the legendary Newport Folk Festival in the U.S. on Aug. 10.
Suzanne intends to commence work on a new album sometime later this year, with an eye towards having a release sometime in '92.
July 1991