Suzanne Vega at The Cabot, June 5th, 2025

Suzanne Vega is on 13-night tour of the east coast (Maine to DC), and one of the stops was in Beverly at the Cabot.

The show is Vega, accompanied by Gerry Leonard, with cellist Stephanie Winters joining on maybe 2/3rds of the songs. There are some backing tracks (percussion) on some songs and I think Leonard may be doubling some bass strings (an effect that covers for the lack of a bass player).

She did a ton of older material – back to “The Queen and the Soldier” and “Small Blue Thing” as well as hits like “Merlene on the Wall” and “Left of Center” – including of course, Luka.

They also did some material from the new album, Flying with Angels, including her adaptation of Bob Dylan’s “I Want You” rewritten from the pov of the chambermaid, and the title track. The audience kept calling for “Witches” – perhaps inspired by proximity to Salem – but Vega said they weren’t ready for that.

As an encore, the trio covered Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” and did “Love Thief” from the new album, closing with “Blood Makes Noise” of her 99.9 F° album.

#BeverlyMA #CabotTheater #GerryLeonard #Live #StephanieWinters #SuzanneVega

David Bowie, The Next Day, 2013 on ISO Records / Columbia

Bowie’s penultimate release, coming three years before Blackstar and a decade after Reality. Produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, and recorded at The Magic Shop in New York City in 2011-2012.

Musicians include Earl Slick, Gerry Leonard, Sterling Campbell, Zack Alford, and Gail Ann Dorsey.

I love the cover, which starts with the cover of Heroes as though someone just put a post-it note over an existing cover.

My copy via Crossroads Records in Portland OR, was released as a 2xLP with a CD included containing the same 17 tracks.

#2010s #2013 #Columbia #CrossroadsRecords #DavidBowie #EarlSlick #GailAnnDorsey #GerryLeonard #ISORecords #SterlingCampbell #TonyVisconti #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds #ZackAlford