Twenty years ago Suzanne Vega became famous with "Luka," an unlikely single about child abuse. Later she struck a groove with "Tom's Diner." Today, she performs from her new album, "Beauty & Crime," which pays homage to her native New York. Later on the show: David Garland, host of WNYC's Evening Music and Spinning on Air, performs songs from his new album, "Noise In You."
Suzanne Vega collects New York stories like a cop walking a beat. First it was the hit song "Luka," inspired by a child she saw on a street in the Chelsea neighborhood. Then it was "Tom’s Diner" which described an Upper West Side restaurant over a throbbing urban beat. Now, on her seventh album, "Beauty & Crime," Vega sings about a New York changed by two tragedies, one national and one personal. She performs live.
For the last 20 years David Garland has been a host WNYC listeners turn to when they want to hear the latest in space-age bachelor pad music, pixie-ish folk-rock, and just about anything else offbeat and under the radar. But when he's not busy hosting two programs on our airwaves – namely, "Evening Music" and "Spinning on Air" – he's busy as a singer and songwriter on the Downtown music scene. He performs live frmo his eighth album, "Noise in You."
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