Suzanne Vega’s Music-Packed Saturday
Suzanne Vega, a singer-songwriter who has forged a three-decades-plus career in an ever-shifting musical landscape, said “a mix of old and new songs” from her extensive catalog is in store when she performs at Guild Hall in East Hampton on Saturday at 8 p.m.
While “Luka” and the a cappella “Tom’s Diner,” from her 1987 album “Solitude Standing,” remain her best- known songs (along with the latter’s 1990 pairing with an electronic dance beat on a track called “Oh Suzanne”), Ms. Vega, who has a house in Amagansett, has continued to push the boundaries of the contemporary-folk label affixed to the artist early in her career.
Her 2014 album “Tales From the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles” was produced by Gerry Leonard, Ms. Vega’s longtime collaborator, who will accompany her at Guild Hall. Next month, she will release “Lover, Beloved: Songs From an Evening with Carson McCullers,” a song cycle about the life and work of the late Southern Gothic novelist. The recordings follow her one-woman play about the author, who wrote such works as “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” “The Member of the Wedding,” and “The Ballad of the Sad Cafe.”
Ms. Vega continues to perform around the world, and spoke with The Star earlier this summer, on the eve of a European tour.
“I play songs from ‘Tales from the Realm,’ and mix in a lot of other things people want to hear — usually one or two songs off each album,” she said of her contemporary performances. “I always do the hits,” among which is also the dreamlike “Caramel,” from 1996’s “Nine Objects of Desire.” At Guild Hall, she said, “I will probably do five new songs from ‘Lover, Beloved: Songs From an Evening With Carson McCullers.’ ”
On Saturday afternoon, Ms. Vega will perform in Springs along with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie, Rufus Wainwright, Teddy Thompson, Jenni Muldaur, and G.E. Smith at a family picnic and concert to benefit the Perfect Earth Project, which advocates for toxin-free landscaping practices.
“I’m really looking forward to it, to all the fun of doing it,” Ms. Vega said of Saturday. “I really love what I do. This is the life I always imagined as a teen: traveling, playing the guitar. It brings me a lot of joy.”
Tickets for Suzanne Vega, Saturday at 8 p.m. at Guild Hall, are $55 to $150, $53 to $145 for members, and are available by calling the box office at 631-324-4050 or at guildhall.org.
Tickets for the family picnic and concert start at $1,000 ($100 for children) and can be reserved online at perfectearthproject.org. In case of rain, that event will be held on Sunday.