Well, if you ask my wife….

There’s a link to some of my recordings on my about page. I mainly play stuff that’s kind of at the intersection of blues, country and rock.

That’s a very likely explanation about stage fright. Suzanne Vega has always struck me as very shy and retiring, and I can imagine it’s an effort to get out there in front of a crowd.

BTW, what kind of music do you play?

It may be surprising but some performers have serious stage fright and make the show as controlled as possible. They have a script to go by while on stage. When something gets screwed up, they’re totally lost.

As for me, when I perform, which has been at most for about 100-200 people, I tend to just wing it beyond a simple set list.

One disappointment though … In the early Eighties I got a bootleg of one of her shows (this was back in the time when bootlegs came on cassette tapes with photocopied covers). Wonderful concert, and I listened to it constantly.

A couple of months later I saw her live, at the tail end of her tour. Not only did she play exactly the same songs as the bootleg; not only did she play them in the same order; she made the same comments, the same jokes, the same “spontaneous asides” … note for note, word for word. Talk about phoning it in!