Suzanne Vega - Live Photos from City Winery, NYC 5-19-10

Suzanne Vega played to a sold out crowd at the last of her three May residency shows at City Winery. This series of shows was to celebrate the 25th anniversary of her self-titled debut.



My first Suzanne Vega show was 25 years ago when she opened for Roger McGuin in Baltimore and she never fails to disappoint live. For this show, Suzanne played what most fans would consider a 'greatest hits' set, touching on all part of her back catalogue.

Here is the set list from the show:

01) Marlene on the Wall
02) Small Blue Thing
03) The Truth About Cats & Dogs
04) Frank and Ava
05) New York Is a Woman
06) Pornographer's Dream
07) Calypso (solo)
08) Tombstone
09) Left of Center (Bass and Vocals)
10) Blood Makes Noise
11) Solitaire
12) The Man Who Played God
13) The Queen and the Soldier
14) Neighborhood Girl
15) Some Journey
16) Luka
17) Tom's Diner

Encore:
1) In Liverpool
2) Rosemary

Suzanne Vega has recently formed her own label Amanuensis Records (distributed by Razor & Tie) and is rerecording her back catalog. Close-Up, Vol. 1, Love Songs comes out on June 15th and four more releases are scheduled over the next two years. Long Songs contains acoustic versions of the following tracks:

01. Small Blue Thing
02. Caramel
03. (If You Were) In My Movie
04. Gypsy
05. Marlene On The Wall
06. (I’ll Never Be Your) Maggie May
07. Harbor Songs
08. Headshots
09. Song In Red and Grey
10. Stockings
11. Some Journey
12. Bound

Links:
Suzanne Vega

Lloyd Cole - Live Photos from City Winery, NYC 5/19/10

Lloyd Cole's new project Small Ensemble made their NYC debut opening for Suzanne Vega during the last night of her May residency at City Winery. Small Ensemble is an acoustic three-piece (self-described as 'baby bluegrass' on Cole's website) which consists of Cole on vocals and guitar, Matt Cullen (guitar/banjo) and Mark Schwaber (guitar/mandolin).



The band played a forty-five minute set which consisted of a mix of stripped-down reinterpretations of songs from Cole's back catalogue (both with the Commotions and solo) along with a couple new songs. I'm more familiar with the three Commotions albums than Cole's solo work so I wasn't able to keep an accurate set list but Small Ensemble has a new limited edition CD whose track list looks very close to the show's set list.

This new 'white label' CD is a limited edition run of 400 copies that is available (autographed, no less) through Cole's web shop. This disc was recorded live in the studio the day after the band's debut 2010 performance.

"Is this an album or not? I’m not sure, it was recorded so that we would have something by the small ensemble to sell at our January 2010 concerts; a souvenir, but it turned out better than we expected, and folk who weren’t at the shows expressed interest in getting their hands on it. So, here it is. Still, I’m not sure what to call it, so for now I’ve invented a new category at the shop – White Labels – this is the first one. It’s not a demo or outtake CD, nor is it my new album. I do like it though, and I hope we can make more of these." -- Lloyd Cole

Cole's next studio disc is due out in Sept. '10 and is described as being "loud, heavy and light...there are elements of rock, country, blue grass and pop. Lots of of acoustic string instruments, plenty of electric guitars, pedal steel, accordion, violin, and some pretty banging drums. And harmony vocals!"

Links:
Lloyd Cole