YOU GO, GIRLS

Tony Peyser
Mirror cotributing writer

   Suzanne Vega’s entire musical essence was shaped right here in Santa Monica. (OK, she only lived here until she was two and then moved to New York but that still makes her a local, doesn’t it?) Anyway, her latest release is Songs In Red And Gray and much of it is blue. This is understandable since Vega’s marriage to Mitchell Froom, who was also her producer - ended - which makes it a divorce Daily Double.
   There is a sadness here but also a strength and clarity as Vega is setting a new course in her life. The album’s first single, “Widow’s Walk,” is named after the space atop houses where women on coasts would pace, watch and wait for their missing husbands to come home from the sea. However, Vega cleverly re-imagines this perch from her perspective: “Consider me a widow, boys/And I will tell you why/It’s not the man, but it’s the marriage/That was drowned.” This mesmerizing track has killer guitar and piano hooks which helps her navigate these troubled waters. One of many strong cuts on a memorably revealing album, “Widow’s Walk” could do for Vega what “Sunny Came Home” did for Shawn Colvin.
   Another singer-songwriter with a new album is Dar Williams whom I first heard of back in 1993 because of her pretty astonishing single, “When I Was A Boy.” Dar Williams Out There Live has a really good sampling of her work but also provides two other ingredients. First of all, the crowds are going unusually wild with enthusiasm which shows what a connection she makes with her audiences. Second of all, her introductions to some of the tracks are amazing, revealing her gift of humor and story-telling.
   I was under the impression that Williams was an intense but humorless Lilith Fair kinda gal. Not so. Her intros for “I Won’t Be Your Yoko Ono” and “The Babysitter’s Here” will permanently disabuse anyone of that belief. In the former song, there’s this great line where Williams imagines John Lennon’s wife saying, “You don’t know a person like me/I could sell your songs to Nike.” In the latter, she recalls someone who used to take care of her and her sister. Williams achingly evokes the found magic and lost innocence of the late 1960s as it slowly began fade, like aging tie-dyed shirts, into the early 1970s.
   Oddly enough, “I Won’t Be Your Yoko Ono” reminded me of another cool sisters-doing-it-for-themselves song called “(I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May.” It’s the third track on Vega’s new album. Maybe the two of them should team up for some duets.
   CDNow has Songs In Red And Gray for $15.49 and Dar Williams Out There Live for $14.49.
*Suzanne Vega will be at UCLA on October 4th.
   The Goofy Band Name Of The Week is … Goddamn Gentlemen.