Suzanne Vega maps tour behind first new album in six years

Singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega returns to concert stages this fall behind "Beauty & Crime," her first new studio album in almost six years.

The New York City-bred Vega will play a pair of isolated dates--July 12 in her hometown and July 22 in Camden, NJ--ahead of the album's July 17 release date, with a tour backing the new set kicking off in earnest Sept. 15 in Poughkeepsie, NY.

The first leg of the fall outing will cover 15 East Coast and Midwest cities, with a western leg expected to emerge as the tour develops. Presales for most of the shows are available through the singer's website. Vega's full tour schedule is detailed below.

Recorded in both New York and London and produced by Jimmy Hogarth (Sia, Corinne Bailey Rae), "Beauty & Crime" is Vega's seventh album and her debut on the Blue Note label. The effort emerges after a long recording layoff following 2001's "Songs in Red and Gray."

"I feel like I really stretched my limits," Vega said in her online bio of the album's recording process. "I pushed myself out of my comfort zone--to sing in keys I wouldn't have sung in before, to work with different textures, to be unafraid of doing what ever sounded good to me. I wanted to make a modern classic."

The first single from the set, "Frank & Ava," is now available for purchase through iTunes.