It’s going to be a real autumn weekend in our region, and nothing says autumn to me more than singers, poets, and artists – especially those that embrace alternative spaces, including the great outdoors.
Suzanne Vega — one of the most literate and poetic singer-songwriters of the rock era – will perform on the Mainstage at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, tonight at 8pm. Vega is an American singer/songwriter of rare poetic genius. Her profound insight on the human experience has earned her followers of all ages and walks of life over a nearly 30 year career yielding critical acclaim and hit songs including “Luka,” “Tom’s Diner” and “Marlene On The Wall”.
Vega is also a folk-pop craftsman, with a string of radio-ready hits that began with “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” and have continued throughout her career, though “Book of Dreams,” running through “(I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May” and “Pornographer’s Dream.” She’s also as edgy an observer of New York City street life as Lou Reed, a committed music activist, and a towering figure of influence on the entire folk-pop scene since the early 1980s.
Cabaret star Karen Akers performs her “Time Flies” program, featuring an updated version of the so-called Great American Songbook, at the New Marlborough Meeting House on Saturday at 4:30pm, as part of the Music & More series. In addition to songs by Gershwin, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, and Dietz & Schwartz, Akers will include songs by Cyndi Lauper, Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Mike Stoller (of Leiber & Stoller fame), and others.
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Sharon Olds will read from her work at The Mount in Lenox tonight at 7 pm. The reading -- the Amy Clampitt Memorial Reading -- will be free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will follow. Olds’s most recent collection, Stag’s Leap, was named one of Oprah’s Favorite Reads of 2012 and won the T.S. Eliot Prize, and also this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Seth Rogovoy is editor of Berkishire Daily and the Rogovoy Report, available online atrogovoyreport.com.