Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation or any other, Suzanne Vega is adding a run of North American dates to her Old Songs, New Songs and Other Songs tour in March. Stops include the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, and multiple nights at Toronto’s Lula Lounge and the Dakota in Minneapolis. See below for a list of dates; tickets for all upcoming shows are available for purchase at suzannevega.com/tour.
The upcoming 2025 tour dates follow two years that saw Vega perform extensively across the U.S. and Europe. Her new 2025 dates will treat audiences to a career spanning evening that will include a first listen to several songs from her forthcoming album.
Of Vega’s performances The New York Times notes that she “is attentive to the realm of the unseen.” Finding Connecticut lauded a recent concert as “nothing short of mesmerizing, weaving tales through her soulful songs in a cozy setting that allowed for a deep connection with the audience.”
Most recently Vega shared a new single, “Rats,” with a music video directed by acclaimed animator and filmmaker Martha Colburn. Stream/share the video HERE and listen to the track HERE. Of the new single, Paste raves, “There’s a little bit of everything from each sonic era that Vega has witnessed…it feels like a quirky soundtrack to the end of the world, as Vega leads her prancing pack of beloved animals up and down the sidewalks of 6th Avenue.”
“Rats” was written by Vega with music and production by her long-time guitarist and musical director, Gerry Leonard. Of the track, which hails from sessions for a forthcoming album, Vega notes, “I was talking to Jimmy Hogarth, the producer of my 2007 album Beauty and Crime. We were discussing who had seen the biggest rat. After that conversation, I kept reading about or hearing various rat stories, all of them true. I took careful note and set it all to music, inspired by The Ramones and Fontaines D.C.”
Video director Colburn blends surreal stop-motion with distinctive collage elements. Her films are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has written and recorded numerous songs that have become part of the contemporary music vernacular, including “Luka,” “Marlene on the Wall” and “Tom’s Diner,” an a cappella piece that was remixed by U.K. electronic dance duo DNA and became a major club hit. It remains an oft-sampled and covered standard by artists across the musical spectrum. Her albums, including her self-titled debut, follow-up Solitude Standing and 99.9F have sold millions of copies worldwide.
Vega’s most recent release, the career-spanning album An Evening of New York Songs and Stories (Amanuensis/Cooking Vinyl) was hailed by the Associated Press as “an excellent Vega primer, an artist who still merits being on your radar no matter what your hometown may be,” while Stereogum raves that the album is “a stripped-down, intimate tour through her songbook, highlighting her rich voice and novelistic approach to lyrics.”
SUZANNE VEGA, OLD SONGS, NEW SONGS AND OTHER SONGS TOUR
March 6—East Greenwich, RI—Greenwich Odeum
March 7—Turners Falls, MA—The Shea Theater
March 8—Homer, NY—Center for the Arts of Homer
March 10—Buffalo, NY—Asbury Hall
March 11—Toronto, ON—Lula Lounge
March 12—Toronto, ON—Lula Lounge
March 15—Minneapolis, MN—Dakota
March 16—Minneapolis, MN—Dakota
March 20—Bloomington, IL—Castle Theatre
March 21—St. Louis, MO—The Sheldon Concert Hall
March 23—Chicago, IL—Old Town School of Folk Music
March 24—Indianapolis, IN—The Tobias Theater
