NEWS AGENCY

Don Henley        Everybody Knows
Sting             Sisters of Mercy
Bono              Hallelujah
Tori Amos         Famous Blue Raincoat
Billy Joel        Light as the Breeze
Trosha Yearwood   Coming Back to You
Aaron Neville     Ain't No Cure for Love
Elton John        I'm Your Man
Willie Nelson     Bird on a [sic] Wire
Suzanne Vega      Story of Isaac
Daniel Lanois     The Stranger Song
Peter Gabriel     So Long, Marianne
Martin Gore       Coming Back to You [#2]

UNDERTOW ON INTERNET

Any administrative stuff (subscribe and unsubscribe) goes to:
undertow-request@law.emory.edu.

Internet is a wondrous thing. It's said that there are some 22,000,000 people on the Internet, and the figure is growing each day. Some of them are actually Suzanne Vega fans, and Undertow -- the Suzanne Vega mailing list -- is becoming more and more active. It is nice to know that there are other people who care. Internet has also been of great help when we prepared the present issue of Language -- we've been sending files and messages to each other across land and sea as if there were no distances. That which used to take days can be done in minutes.

Computers give you the feeling of reliability, dependability and control. But the feeling of safety is deceptive. A couple of days before we had to print the issue, our channel for sending files broke down. We never really figured out why, but managed to find another way of sending the crucial file. So we're rather happy that Language is a printed magazine, after all...

ok, gang. I can no longer pretend that I am not Online and reading this message folder from time to time! I am tickled to find it way down here in World Beat and thank you WaterBro for opening it in such a sweet way. I am amused that none of the readers of this folder reads People Magazine!

Anyhow -- I had no idea the Gap was playing "Saltwater". I will give more details on what that is in a later message. I figure if I don't post from time to time Online will sweep in and throw the folder away as it has done to many others. Then I would never "see" you guys again! with affection, Suzanne Vega

Hi, gang. I thought I'd check in.

Dear SNORM: I appreciate your cynicism, and if someone signs on "SuzyB" they are definitely an imposter, since mine is SuzyV. It's true though -- how can you know for sure? One person asked me what my brother's name was, since he had been to one of his parties. As if I didn't know my own brother's name --

To Miba -- thanks for your comments -- the knife is neither ancient nor buddhist but a gift from someone a few years ago. It's like a good luck token.

To PATNPETE -- if it was both Carnegie Hall and Radio City, it must have been 1987! New music? There is another Leonard Cohen Tribute album coming out on A&M records, and I sing a version of "Story of Isaac". I think it's coming out in the fall, but I don't have the official release date on that. Otherwise, I plan to start recording next year, and probably won't tour for a little while after the baby's born in July.

As for "Salt water" -- it was a song I wrote with DNA for their album called "Taste This" on EMI. The album came out in the UK in1992, and disappeared. I like the lyrics and I want to include it in a "retrospective" of some kind, in about a year or so, with "Left of Center", and the singles from each of the albums. Any comments?

thanks, you guys.
most affectionately,
Suzanne Vega

Hi there -- just checking in. The World Beat folder seems to be becoming more and more esoteric as it gets shoved out even farther beyond the mainstream folders. Soon we will be floating in our own little island in cyberspace.

Anyhow! in regards to your 2 questions - no I wasn't asked to sing on the Carpenters tribute album (can't say I'm regretful, there), and 2. the due date is currently July 15.

oh by the way regarding the Christine Lavin song "Mysterious Woman" -- I think it's one of her best! (she said when she wrote it that she meant it as a form of flattery and I accepted that)

thanks you guys.

Suzanne

Hello gang. Thank you for the congratulations. Ruby is six weeks old today, and she is fine and I am fine, though it took a while to emerge again. I had no idea it would be like that.

I hope to be dropping in more often these days -
Thanks again-

Suzanne (Vega)

hi gang --

sorry it has been a while since I dropped in. I find that since Ruby is born I have only enough time to do the "flashSessions", and very often I can't get to the Message Board at all.

The Undertow newsletter gets "delivered" through the mail, so sometimes I answer any questions that may be lurking in that forum. To get onto that mailing list you write to "undertow-request@vader.cc.emory.edu" (without the quotes), and you post the word "subscribe". There's a little more action on that front, but there probably won't be much until next year when another album comes out.

By the way, The "Ruby Vroom" album, by Soul Coughing, was produced by Tchad Blake, who is Mitchell Froom's partner and engineer -- they asked to use Ruby's name for their album, and I said they could if they changed it. In case you were wondering!

Otherwise -- I did a half hour benefit on Saturday afternoon for the Fast Folk Cafe on N. Moore street in Manhattan. And I participated in the J. Morgan Puett fashion show, carrying Ruby. (she's the designer who made the big baggy pants from the last album and tour.) Otherwise, let's see -- breastfeeding mania has subsided somewhat, but I'd rather not go into the gory details, if you know what I mean.

Thanks for hanging in there --

Suzanne Vega

oh by the way regarding the Christine Lavin song "Mysterious Woman" -- I think it's one of her best! (she said when she wrote it that she meant it as a form of flattery and I accepted that)

thanks you guys.

Suzanne

Ruby Maria Froom was born July 8, 1994 -- she was 6lbs, 9 oz. It was a long and difficult labor, ending in a C-section but I am well and just about recovered.

I have been reading your comments with interest -- I am especially intrigued with all the questions and comments about "Wooden Horse", the song about Caspar Hauser, and am working on a reply about that song.

Forgive me if I don't write in all the time. I tend to be reclusive, but I am so very happy to know that there is a group of you out there who want to discuss the songs. Your questions and comments stay with me for days. I only found out about this list a few days before I went into the hospital. So while I have been reading the list, I haven't responded so far. I'll write in from time to time.

Thanks a lot for listening.

Suzanne Vega
(24-08-94)

Anyhow, I'll be in touch!
(06-10-94)

I thought I would quickly explain why "Soul Coughing" named their album what they did -- they wanted to call it "Ruby Froom", but I said no, so they changed it to "Ruby Vroom", which I found acceptable. The album was produced by Tchad Blake, who is Mitchell Froom's partner and engineer. Basically they thought it was a pretty name. I said no because -- what if she wants to make her own album when she gets older?

I'll write again--

Suzanne
(25-10-94)

just so you know, I am doing a benefit for The Fast Folk Cafe on October 28, singing for a half hour at 2:00 in the afternoon. The Fast Folk Cafe seats about 74 people and is run by Jack Hardy; it's at 41 N. Moore Street in Manhattan.

I'd like to ask you guys not to write to me directly, because I'll never have time to answer directly; and it's not really the spirit of this -- what is this? this newsletter? It's better, I think, to address the list as a whole. That way I'll answer when I can, and everybody's in on it.

yours truly and affectionately,

Suzanne Vega
(29-10-94)

re: concert venues:

many times I will get to a city and find out that the venue is "21 and over", even though we are slated to play that city because it is a college town. weird, huh? a few people brought that to my attention on the last tour.

it is a glitch in the agent's way of thinking. there were a number of problems like that on the last two tours I did. as much as I try to control what happens on a tour beforehand, once I'm out there it is nearly impossible to keep track of each gig at each venue at each city -- that's why you hope your agent is a good one, with some contact with reality.

by making the gigs "21 and over" I cut out a large portion of the audience who are obviously teenagers -- it is a stupid rule and someone should remind of this issue when I make plans for the next time out. till next time --

Suzanne Vega
(05-11-94)

one more thing -- do I have control over where I play? only if I make specific requests or if the gigs are slanted one way or another. obviously I can't ask for each venue in each city by name. ironically, on the last tour, most of the promotion was slanted toward the "alternative" market, which is a younger crowd, so many of the venues reflected that, or I thought they did. and yet you have problems like the one you brought up.

I myself don't see why you can't have the records slanted towards both "alternative" and "folk"-- it's hard for someone like myself who doesn't fit any specific category. how do you target an audience? I never think of those things-- I assume whoever likes the record will buy it. this is a problem only in America -- in Europe there is no "alternative" or any of these subdivisions Americans are so fond of.

thanks for writing --

Suzanne Vega

(05-11-94)

he and his wife had a baby recently (about a year ago? maybe more) and one can find him many afternoons in a playground in Greenwich Village. He's working on a new album, which he wanted to sound like Sade --

Just thought I'd add some gossip to this file --

S. V.
(15-11-94)

Uh, I meant "Anton's" roof -- Anton was the keyboard player in my band and the co-producer of "Days of Open Hand", and my boyfriend at the time. How funny to read that interview now -- I guess it was eight years ago. Most of it still holds true.

S. V.
(18-11-94)

I will probably put out a retrospective at some point, but not next year -- next year I will be working on the fifth album, tentatively titled "Love Hotel".

After that I want to put out two things -- one collection called "Thirteen Early Songs" w songs like "Marching Dream", "Silver Lady", "Daniella", "Black Widow Station", and some others that aren't known, like "Feather and Bone" and "Not Me" which I used to think were too intense to sing in public. I also want to put out a "Best of", but the kind I like is the kind you hate -- I love records that collect an artist's singles throughout a period, with no odds and ends, no filler, no experiments, just the tried and true. Sometimes I'll buy that instead of someone's entire collection (like the Pretenders, for example.) I am always assuming people don't have the money or patience to buy tapes of someone fooling around, because I never did. But I will consider it -- PJ Harvey's demos are supposed to be even better than her second record, for example.

As for bootlegs -- I assume that if someone goes to all the trouble of getting something illegally, they probably have the legit stuff already. Live is another thing -- my voice isn't that strong sometimes, so I don't like the thought that there are lousy shows floating around somewhere. That doesn't mean I encourage bootlegs, but I figure what the hell.

Keep writing ( and I'll do the same ) --

Suzanne Vega
(18-11-94)

TARANTINO: I love gril groups. [Laughs] But in the sixties, pretty much all they ever sang about was their boyfriends: "He's so cool/he's so tough/I'm not too young to get married." The Go-Go's were terrific, and their songs seemed poignant and real. But even they were basically signing about their boyfriends, too. So I don't know if you actually get insight from girl groups. If you want to learn about how a woman feels, you might want to listen to someone like Suzanne Vega.