the newport folk festival

Suzanne Vega Newport Folk Festival Suzanne Vega's Onstage Comments transcription by Sharon Jennings, photos by John Cooperider Ben & Jerry's Folk Festival Program, Newport 1996. Suzanne Vega, known to the New York Times as "the most decisively shaped songwriting personality to come along in years," has spent the spring working on her first album of new material since the critically acclaimed 99.9F Degrees. Off the road since the birth of her daughter, Vega notes that her new songs deal with "love, appetite and desires, (giving) this record a warmer feel."Her new song "Caramel" has been released on the soundtrack fro the recent film, The Truth About Cats And Dogs, and "Woman On The Tier" was featured in Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking. Originally a dance major, Vega first earned international attention with her Top Ten hit "Luka" and with "Tom's Diner," which reappeared three years later as a dance remix. Both revealed her unique modern vision, reminiscent of other urban poets like Leonard Cohen. Her 1990 A&M release Days Of Open Hand was nominated for two Grammy awards, further establishing her as a "young artist fully come into her own... (known for) a prayerful intensity and a clean, sharp intelligence" [Rolling Stone]. Announcer: ..... I'm real excited to introduce this next performer. She has a new album coming out in September on A&M. it's called "Nine Objects Of Desire". Look for it in your record store. Please give a big welcome for Suzanne Vega. 1) Marlene On The Wall Suzanne: Thanks, thank you very much. So we're going to do some older songs and we're going to do some new songs too. And we're going to do some songs that are considered folk songs and then some other songs that are not quite so pure. Just thought I'd tell you. That song was "Marlene On The Wall", this one's "Rock In This Pocket". 2) "Rock In This Pocket" Suzanne: Thank you. So I've been away for a few years, and in the mean time I've had a baby (huge cheer from the audience) and I've gotten married, and so what have you all been up to? Probably something similar I would think. This is a new song. It's called "Caramel". 3) "Caramel" People in the audience shouting for "Gypsy" Suzanne: We'll see. 4) "Small Blue Thing" Suzanne : This is a new song and it's called "Stockings" 5) "Stockings" Suzanne: Thanks 6) "The Queen And The Soldier" Suzanne: Thanks. Thank you. I'm still working on my anecdotes. Er, it takes awhile sometimes to work them up and um. Last Sunday for example I was in San Francisco. Shout from the audience. Suzanne : You too. What a coincidence! And um, our gear had gone missing for about a day which was very exciting for us as you might imagine. And we found it at a jail, like two hours outside of San Francisco. It's too long a story to go into really but I'm sure it will become a witty anecdote some point in the next year. Anyway last Sunday in Berkeley I was walking down the street and I saw this baby in a baby seat like under a tree. And this was a very strange experience because at first I thought that someone had thrown out the baby seat and then I saw the baby was still in there so I started to yell and scream and say things like "There's a baby in this seat". And thinking I should do something like take it and adopt it for the rest of it's life and mine. And so all of this was going through my mind and I realised then that the parents of this baby were in a car like right on the curb and somehow I had gotten in between this baby and their parents. So I'm sitting there screaming "There's a baby in here" and I imagining that er, you know. Anyway I was embarrassed after this so I said "Hi how are you doing" and I just kept going and the thought occurred to me that I almost had a baby, almost had another baby last Sunday. This song is called "World Before Columbus" and I dedicate it to my own baby. 7) "World Before Columbus" Suzanne: Thanks. Sometimes I feel funny you know when I come here and I play Newport because it's such a different atmosphere than what I'm used to. I grew up in New York City (cheer from the audience. Suzanne laughs) Thanks, so all of these songs are not really meant to be sung in the open air with the beautiful sky and the nice boats and everybody mellow and kind of like in a good mood and everything. So er, I'm going to have to interrupt this happy mood for a second. Please if you will imagine yourself in a dark nasty street in front of a bar somewhere perhaps in New York City. And maybe there's two prostitutes standing there. If you will, if you don't mind, if it's not too much of a stretch and I'll sing the song. 8) "Neighborhood Girls" Suzanne: Thank you 9) "Blood Makes Noise" 10) "Luka" Suzanne; Thank you. Thank you. You've been so nice. I would like to introduce the musicians on stage up here with me. We had Mitchell Froom on keyboards. Mike Visceglia on bass and electric and acoustic guitar and a multitude of other instruments. (shouting from audience. Suzanne laughs) We'll see. Alright now please if you don't mind, if you don't mind, if you would, if you would imagine yourself please on 112th Street and Broadway in New York City. Just for a minute alright. It won't last long I promise and the we can come back here to Newport where it's beautiful. 11) "Tom's Diner" Announcer: Suzanne Vega. Suzanne Vega ladies and gentlemen. Suzanne Vega. Encore: Suzanne: Thank you. Thanks. OK I'll sing "Gypsy", I'll sing it, I'll sing it. No problem. 12) "Gypsy" Suzanne: Thank you very much. Announcer: Suzanne Vega. Remember that record called "Nine Objects Of Desire" A&M in September.