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Thursday, September 27, 2001
A softer, earthly Suzanne Vega releases album
Feeling secure, Vega makes a comeback from 1996 with new songs and a book of poems
By Kim Curtis
Associated Press

Associated Press

Singer Suzanne Vega has asked A&M records to change the lead song in her latest release. Her first album in five years is called 'Songs in Red and Gray:' red for passion and gray for intellect.

   SAN FRANCISCO - Three years ago, Suzanne Vega figured her musical career was over.
   Her life was turned upside down after she divorced her husband, sold her house and fired her manager. And the folkie who burst onto the pop scene in 1987 with the mega-hit "Luka," hadn't written a song in years.
   "Everything went up in the air and everything that I had thought was stable in my life became unstable," she said in an interview. "I was kind of thinking, 'I'm in my early 40s. I've had a good long career and maybe this is the time to wrap it up.'"
   Feeling secure
   But with a little prodding from her bass player - who still had confidence in Vega's commercial appeal - she set out on a European tour, and was astonished that people still wanted to hear what she had to say. Feeling newly secure, she started writing again - not only songs, but also a book of poems, "The Passionate Eye: The Collected Writing of Suzanne Vega."
   "I need a certain sense of rhythm in my life to really be creative," she says. "I'm not one of those people who really thrives on chaos. It really helps me to have a certain kind of stable place."
   On Sept. 25, she released her first album in five years, "Songs in Red and Gray." For Vega, it marks a return to raw, acoustic sound that is her strength.
   Essence of her art
   "It still boils down to her and her guitar. That's the essence of her art - her voice, her lyrics and her guitar," says her bassist of 15 years, Mike Visceglia. "And it works really well because you can get close to Suzanne in a way people haven't been able to in a very long time."
   Vega says the "Red" in the album's title represents passion, while the "Gray" is for intellect. In the past, Vega, whose unflinching lyrics of "Luka" raised awareness about child abuse, has leaned toward the gray.
   With her erudite lyrics and angular looks, Vega had been criticized for "being too thin, too pale and wearing too much black," she recalls.
   But now, at 42, a single mother with a 6-year-old daughter, Ruby, Vega seems softer and more approachable, both in appearance and performance. She even comes close to downright earthy - wearing black, of course.
   The voice - ethereal and pared down, without a trace of vibrato - remains the same.
   "I feel that my vocal style is pretty direct, pretty simple. It takes all my concentration to sing on pitch, but I love singing. It's a real sensual thrill for me," she says.
   Vega was born in Santa Monica, Calif. She moved to New York City as a toddler after her parents divorced. Her stepfather, Ed Vega, was a Puerto Rican-born writer and teacher, and Vega spoke both English and Spanish.
   Singing at 3
   Vega's mother says her daughter was 3 when she started singing along with the radio. At 11, she started picking out chords on her stepfather's guitar, and by 14, Vega admits writing "horribly corny" songs.
   By her late teens, Vega was singing in Greenwich Village clubs frequented by folk-music devotees. Her early influences included Joan Baez, Laura Nyro, Paul Simon and, most important, Lou Reed.
   Vega's self-titled debut album, released in 1985, was expected to sell about 30,000 copies. Instead, it sold a million worldwide. Her 1987 follow-up, "Solitude Standing," included "Luka," a look at the world through the eyes of an abused boy. It received Grammy nominations for record of the year and song of the year.
   Critically acclaimed releases followed in 1990, 1992 and 1996. In the interim, she married her producer, Mitchell Froom, and gave birth to their daughter.
   But the well of songs within her began to dry up.
   "There's always stuff to write about although the hard thing is seeing it," she says. "The kind of life that I live is very basic. It's all based on Ruby and getting her dressed in the morning and getting her to school. It's hard to see the potential to write songs because you're not thinking about it most of the time."
   When she divorced her husband, she lost most of her band, which Froom had hired. Visceglia was the one band member who stayed.

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