Suzanne Vega was out on the road for a handful of dates entitled An Intimate Evening of Songs and Stories. I had the privilege to see one of these shows on October 12 at the Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw, North Carolina. It’s a small, intimate venue with a very cool vibe to it once you step foot inside. You know you’re in for something good when you enter a venue like this. The show sold-out well in advance of the show date, so these fans were pretty anxious to see Vega live. This was going to be somewhat of an early show with showtime at 8:00 and no opening act.

I got there early to scout out where I could take pictures from and although I was limited to just side stage shots, I had to try and make it work. By 7:30, almost every seat was already spoken for. This was a somewhat rare “seated event” as I was told at the box office. The stage was pretty bare with only 2 mics, one electric guitar, one acoustic guitar, some pedals and an amp. The electric guitar belonged to her guitarist Gerry Leonard. The houselights dimmed and the two of them walked out on stage, picked up their guitars, Vega put on her black top-hat and we were off!

The show was like an episode of VH1 Storytellers. I’m sure many of you will get that reference and if you don’t, then you can find many artists on YouTube who appeared on that show. Vega told interesting stories between songs to introduce the next one that she was about to play. Some of the stories were rather amusing such as “Gypsy” written about a summer camp love affair and their love of Leonard Cohen. She never saw the guy again after camp until 15 years later when she began to wonder what happened to him. She then wrote the song “In Liverpool” about him. Years later, she was doing a show in London and she received a beautiful bouquet of flowers backstage from the guy from summer camp. His email address was in a note on the flowers and they communicated via email with each other. Eventually, they met for lunch. He told her that he heard the song “In Liverpool” and recognized that it was about him. He then told her that he played it over and over and how it irritated his girlfriend. He casually told her that he had dated Suzanne Vega to which his girlfriend responded, ‘What??!! You dated Suzanne Vega??!!’

There were other stories told, but I do believe that one was my favorite. Although most of her stories were somewhat comical, things took on a serious note when she introduced “Rock in His Pocket (Song of David).” She sung it at an event for Ukraine and it references the David and Goliath story. The next song was a new one called “Last Train from Mariupol” and explained that it was about the war in Ukraine and how the fighting had engulfed the city. After a few other songs, she hit the crowd with one of her more commercial hits in “Left of Center” which was on the Pretty In Pink soundtrack.

She finished her set with the one two punch of “Luka” and then “Tom’s Diner.” “Luka”was her biggest commercial hit reaching #3 on the U.S. charts. When she sang the lyric “they only hit until you cry,” I got goosebumps. The emotion in her voice took me back to the time when I realized that this song was about child abuse. “Tom’s Diner” closed out the set, but not acappella. A type of drum loop was created by her guitarist Leonard to which she sang to. Her encore consisted of “Tombstone,” the new song “Rats” and “Rosemary.”

What a great evening! A room full of people brought together because of the love of one person’s music. All types of people, under one roof who took time out of their fast paced lives to slow down and enjoy Vega’s stories and songs. Her guitarist Leonard was phenomenal with his playing and what he able to add to the songs using his pedals. As for Vega, her voice was so incredibly smooth. It was sometimes somber, sometimes assertive, but pure, beautiful and without any studio, smoke and mirrors trickery. Those kinds of voices are getting harder and harder to find due to technology making up for the lack of talent in artists. 

Review & Pictures: I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price