Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles

Updated on Dec 05, 2023

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Length 36:40 Artist Suzanne Vega Producer Gerry Leonard Genre Rock music		Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles (2014) Close-Up Series (2014) Release date 31 January 2014 Label Cooking Vinyl

Released February 2014 (2014-02) Studio Clubhouse Studios (NY), Kyserike Station (NY), One East Studios, (NY), Studio Disk Barrandov (Prague) Similar Suzanne Vega albums, Rock music albums

Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles is the eighth studio album by the American singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega.

Released in February 2014, it was Vega's first album of new material in seven years. The album features contributions from Larry Campbell and Tony Levin (bassist from King Crimson and for Peter Gabriel). Although Vega's music had been sampled by various artists in the past, the album contains Vega's first own attempt at sampling with the track "Don't Uncork What You Can't Contain" including interpolations from 50 Cent's 2005 song "Candy Shop".

The album entered the UK Album Chart at #37, the first time one of Vega's studio albums had reached the UK Top 40 since 1992. It received generally favourable reviews.

The album appeared under Vega's own label, Amanuensis Productions, and was distributed in Europe by Cooking Vinyl and in North America by Aimee Mann's label Superego.

Suzanne vega tales from the realm of the queen of pentacles

Recording

Over the past number of years Vega had collected 'recordings with melodies, lyrics, notes and pieces of ideas' for songs on her iPhone. Together with long-time collaborator Gerry Leonard she began to 'solidify these ideas' over the course of a year. After road-testing a number of these songs on tour, the duo began the recording of the new material. Leonard gathered a number of musicians and began live-tracking at the Clubhouse Studios in upstate New York. Additional material was recorded at his home-studio, a converted railway station outside Rochester (NY). Leonard also oversaw the arrangement of the string section and the trumpet contribution made by Alison Balsom.

Track listing

All tracks written by Suzanne Vega and Gerry Leonard except * by Suzanne Vega, arranged by Gerry Leonard..

Personnel

Suzanne Vega – vocals, guitar

Gerry Leonard – acoustic and electric guitars, harmonium

Gail Ann Dorsey – bass on tracks 1, 2, 6 and 8

Zachary Alford – drums and percussion on tracks 1, 2, 6 and 8

Larry Campbell – banjo, mandolin, and cimbalom on tracks 1, 2, 8 and 10

Catherine Russell – backing vocals on tracks 1, 2, 8 and 9

Doug Yowell – drums on tracks 1, 4, 7, 9 and 10

Jay Bellerose – drums on track 3

Tony Levin – bass on tracks 3 and 5

Sterling Campbell – drums on tracks 5 and 9

Smichov Chamber Orchestra, Prague (conducted by Josef Vondracek) – strings on tracks 5, 6 and 8

Joji Hirota – Taiko Drums and shakuhachi on tracks 5 and 6

Mike Visceglia – bass on tracks 9 and 10

Alison Balsom – trumpet on track 10

Technical personnel

Michael Tudor, assisted by Andy Gilchrist – engineering except; Strings recorded at Studio Disk Barrandov, Prague by Lukas Vacek and Karel Holas; Trumpet recorded at Angel Studios, London by Gary Thomas; additional recording at Kyserike Station, N.Y. by Gerry Leonard

Kevin Killen – mixing

Songs

1Crack in the Wall4:24
2Fool's Complaint2:40
3I Never Wear White3:08

References

Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA