Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell are rightly thought of as poet laureates of rock for the 60s and 70s. One could argue, with justice, that Suzanne Vega was cut from the same brilliant cloth when she emerged onto the 1980s folk scene. Her songs had a poise and honesty that cut through the day-glo bombast of the 80s charts and pierced people’s hearts, most notably with her tragic ballad of child abuse, Luka, but also with introspective songs such as Marlene On The Wall and Tom’s Diner. Though she found fame as a modern folk artist, becoming the first female headliner at Glastonbury Festival in 1989, she resisted typecasting, exploring electronica in songs such as 1992’s Blood Makes Noise and carving her own unique path onwards. But she has always returned to what she calls “her only instrument”, the guitar.
With a UK tour of her 2020 album, An Evening Of New York Songs And Stories, coming in spring next year, we join Suzanne to reflect on her early years with the Greenwich Village scene, the art of songwriting, and the hand-built Czech guitars that have become her standby for writing and performing.
Your new album was recorded live in the heart of New York, in the same city where you first started performing as a teenager. What was the folk scene like then?
“Well, they were very small audiences, let’s put it that way. I mean, in the very beginning, in the coffee houses, it was great. The audiences listened to the songs. And this was in the 70s – it was more difficult
