Suzanne Vega virtual show benefits Concert Hall

Thursday, Oct 1, 2020 10:06 PM

New York City is certainly not what it used to be. Long gone is the excessive graffiti, burnt out buildings in the Lower East Side, “The Warriors” and The Baseball Furies, replaced by condos and cocktail and coffee bars.

People yearn for the old New York, forgetting that the New York City from the time of Kojak and classic Scorsese films wasn’t the most ideal place. It was dangerous.

For musician Suzanne Vega, a lifelong New Yorker who will be performing a virtual concert Wednesday, with proceeds from ticket sales benefiting the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, the changes to the Big Apple are for the most part, good.

“It’s been fascinating seeing all the changes. I mean there were times in the ’70s where I thought it was brutal and ugly and I couldn’t really imagine it changing, but then it did,” Vega said in a recent interview. “To be honest, I thought it changed for the better because I like being able to walk in the park; I thought some of the changes were really good. Not all the changes, and I’ve seen it from all these different decades now.”

It’s no secret that music venues of all sizes nationwide are struggling; the Community Concert Hall is one of about 80 performance spaces that will receive a cut of the online ticket sales for Vega’s Wednesday performance. Having performed in Durango in 2010 and 2014, this is a way for Vega to remain connected to venues that have hosted her in the past, and venues that will host her in the future. She’ll be performing from an empty Blue Note Jazz Club in Greenwich Village, save for the seven cameras and her bandmates. Like most musicians in a pandemic world, streamed concerts with an audience you can’t see are part of the game.

“I’ve been doing a few livestreams from home, so I’ve gotten to know it a little bit,” she said. “You just have to imagine the audience is there and talk as though you see them and feel them because they see and feel you. So, it’s a little bit like doing a video. You just have to keep that in your mind’s eye and imagine who it is that you’re speaking and playing to.”

Vega’s latest release is an homage to her hometown, titled “An Evening of New York Songs and Stories.” Recorded live at the Café Carlyle on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, it showcases Vega as a striking bandleader and commanding vocalist. Known for her 1987 hit “Luka,” she’s more than a one-hit wonder. She has a vast, genre-spanning repertoire with a deep appreciation of music reflected in the track listing of her latest release, where folk cuts are just as likely to be followed by a tune or two with a cocktail jazz vibe. It’s a New York-centric record; cuts like “New York Is A Woman” or “New York Is My Destination” are among her many originals that nod to the city, and she’s even thrown in covers that also carry that Big Apple vibe, including the late Lou Reeds “Walk On The Wild Side.”

Whether you’ve visited the city in person or you just know it from pop culture, it’s a place that exists in the human imagination – Vega’s intent for this record, and perhaps her Wednesday show, is to create our own association with New York through her songs.

“I want people to make the songs their own. You listen and it becomes part of you in some way,” she said.

Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.