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A VILLAGE VOICE
Explore songbird Suzanne Vega’s muse: New York City.
Although she was born in Santa Monica, California, Suzanne Vega is in every sense a New York artist. Raised from an early age in East Harlem, the singer/songwriter cut her teeth in Greenwich Village, schlepping her guitar to gigs at coffee shops and small folk venues in the style of her hero Bob Dylan, before two hit albums in the mid-1980s launched her career.
At least half the songs on her new album, Beauty & Crime, are odes to New York City. The standout track is the beautiful “Ludlow Street,” named after a road on the Lower East Side where her late brother lived. But that’s only the beginning of the tour.
Where in New York do you live?
“I live on the Upper West Side. I like the fact that I’m close to [Central Park] and my daughter’s school. I love the diversity here, and I like getting to know my neighbors.”
Your songs mention real New York streets and places. Is that important to you?
“I think it’s important to write truthfully, and sometimes that means putting in real places and characters. I walked into Tom’s Restaurant (www.morningside-heights.net; 212-864-6137) recently, and someone started singing the chorus at me, so now I avoid it! And I don’t go to Ludlow Street very much now, but I do visit it in my mind, so to speak.”
Can you explain the title of “New York is a Woman,” one of your new songs?”
“A man from the UK was telling me about his first visit to New York. He told me it was like everything he had seen in all the movies, that he was intoxicated by it and that he had extended his stay. The way he spoke, and the way other first-time visitors have spoken to me, made me feel he was speaking in romantic terms.
That’s what made me think of New York as a woman.”
What are the city’s best qualities?
“There is a unique energy here, made up of the mixture of people you find, all different ethnicities, social classes, all pressed together in a very small space, from the late Lady Brooke Astor to Woody Allen. New York has slums but it also has the best theater and museums.”
What are your favorite music venues?
“These days, I sometimes go to see artists at The Living Room (www.livingroomny.com), Bowery Ballroom (www.boweryballroom.com) and Irving Plaza (www.irvingplaza.com). And I used to love Folk City, the Speakeasy, Bottom Line and CBGB’s, which are gone now.”
Where do you write songs?
“Everywhere! Lately, in a studio called Great City Productions on West 26th Street because it’s a place where I can hear myself think, unlike being at home.”
Can you recommend a good coffee shop?
“The Cornelia Street Cafe (www.corneliastreetcafe.com) (where Suzanne played before she had a record deal) is still a great place either to see a poetry reading or a jazz show or to have dinner. Otherwise I head to local coffee places in my neighborhood, like City Diner (212-877-2720) or Metro Diner (212-866-0800) on Broadway.”
What does your teenage daughter, Ruby, like to do in the city?
“She goes to the park with our new puppy. She used to love going to Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex (www.chelseapiers.com) for the rock-climbing wall, and when she was younger I loved taking her to the American Museum of Natural History (www.amnh.org) and the Central Park Zoo (www.centralparkzoo.com). Central Park is great.”
What does winter in New York mean to you?
“I like New York winters. I love the cold and the snow. For a moment, New York is clean and pure. By the time spring comes, you feel you’ve really earned it.” —Sophy Grimshaw