Days of Open Hand
Encyclopedia
Days of Open Hand is Suzanne Vega
's third album
, released in 1990 (see 1990 in music
). This album won the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package
in 1991.
except as noted.
Single
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
's third album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, released in 1990 (see 1990 in music
1990 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1990.-Events:*January 21 – MTV's Unplugged premieres on cable television with British band Squeeze...
). This album won the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package
Grammy Award for Best Recording Package
The Grammy Award for Best Recording Package is one of a series of Grammy Awards presented for the visual look of an album. It is presented to the art director of the winning album, not to the performer, except if the performer is also the art director....
in 1991.
Track listing
All songs written by Suzanne VegaSuzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
except as noted.
- "Tired of Sleeping" – 4:22
- "Men in a War" – 4:47
- "Rusted Pipe" (Vega, Anton Sanko) – 4:16
- "Book of Dreams" (Vega, A. Sanko) – 3:22
- "Institution Green" (Vega, A. Sanko) – 6:15
- "Those Whole Girls (Run in Grace)" – 3:09
- "Room off the Street" (Vega, A. Sanko) – 3:00
- "Big Space" (Vega, A. Sanko) – 3:46
- "Predictions" – 4:59
- "Fifty-Fifty Chance"– 2:36
- "Pilgrimage" (Vega, A. Sanko) – 5:10
Personnel
- Suzanne VegaSuzanne VegaSuzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
– vocalSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
on 1 2 4 6 8 9 10, background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
on 1 2 7 11, FairlightFairlight CMIThe Fairlight CMI is a digital sampling synthesizer. It was designed in 1979 by the founders of Fairlight, Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie, and based on a dual-6800 microprocessor computer designed by Tony Furse in Sydney, Australia...
on 3 8, hand clapsClappingA clap is the sound made by striking together two flat surfaces, as in the body parts of humans or animals. Humans clap with the palms of their hands, often in a constant drone to express appreciation or approval , but also in rhythm to match sounds in music and dance...
on 7 - Michael Visceglia – five-string bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
on 1 2 3 6, fretless bass on 5 9 11 - Marc Shulman – electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
on 1 2 3 4 5 9 11, tipleTipleTiple is the Spanish word for treble or soprano, is often applied to specific instruments, generally to refer to a small chordophone of the guitar family. A tiple player is called a tiplista.-Colombian tiple:...
on 1 6 8, electric 12-string guitar on 4, E-Bow guitarE-BowThe EBow or ebow is a hand-held, battery-powered electronic device for playing the electric guitar, invented by Greg Heet in 1969...
on 5 9 11, bouzoukiBouzoukiThe bouzouki , is a musical instrument with Greek origin in the lute family. A mainstay of modern Greek music, the front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but...
on 8 - Anton Sanko – Hammond C3Hammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
on 1 2 3, Akai S1000Akai S1000The Akai S1000 is a 16-bit professional stereo digital sampler, released by Akai in 1988. The S1000 was among the first professional-quality 16-bit stereo samplers. Its abilities to splice, crossfade, trim, and loop music in 16-bit CD-quality sound made it popular among producers of this era...
on 2 3 6 11, Sequential Circuits Prophet VSSequential CircuitsSequential Circuits Inc. was a California-based synthesizer company that was founded in the early 1970s by Dave Smith and sold to Yamaha Corporation in 1987. The company, throughout its lifespan, pioneered many groundbreaking technologies and design principles that are often taken for granted in...
on 3 8 9 11, Fairlight CMI percussion programming on 3 11, Voyetra EightVoyetra-8The Voyetra-8 is an eight voice polyphonic analog synthesizer. Released in 1982 by Octave-Plateau Electronics , it was one of the first analog programmable synthesizers to be rack-mountable and remains one of the most flexible digitally controlled analog...
on 5 11, Fairlight on 5 6 8 9, DX7IIYamaha DX7The Yamaha DX7 is an FM Digital Synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1986. It was the first commercially successful digital synthesizer. Its distinctive sound can be heard on many recordings, especially Pop music from the 1980s...
on 5, string arrangementsString instrumentA string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
on 5, classical guitarClassical guitarThe classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
on 7, tiple on 7, harmoniumHarmoniumA harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...
on 8, additional electric guitar on 9 - Frank Vilardi – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
on 1 2 3 4 5 11, rims on 5, brushesDrum stickA percussion mallet is an object used to beat drums and other percussion instruments. Some specialized mallets are called beaters, drumsticks.Note: See Rute .-Drum sticks:...
on 5, Akai S-1000 on 6, shaker on 8, percussion on 8, floor tomFloor tomA floor tom is a double-headed tom-tom drum which usually stands on the floor on three legs. However, they can also be attached to a cymbal stand with a drum clamp....
on 9, snare drumSnare drumThe snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
on 9, cymbalCymbalCymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
on 9, Blastics on 11 - Michael Blair – metal percussion on 2 4 9, tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
on 2, wood percussion on 4 9, shakerShaker (percussion)The word shaker describes a large number of percussive musical instruments used for creating rhythm in music.They are so called because the method of creating sound involves shaking them—moving them back and forth rather than striking them. Most may also be struck for a greater accent on certain...
on 7 11, orchestral bass drumBass drumBass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
on 9, Chinese drum on 9, hand drumHand drumA hand drum is any type of drum that is typically played with the bare hand rather than a stick, mallet, hammer, or other type of beater. The simplest type of hand drum is the frame drum, which consists of a shallow, cylindrical shell with a drumhead attached to one of the open ends.-Types:The...
on 11
Additional Personnel
- John LinnellJohn LinnellJohn Sidney Linnell is an American musician, is known primarily as one half of Brooklyn, New York alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants...
– accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
on 1 - Shawn ColvinShawn ColvinShawn Colvin is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Childhood and early career:Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. Her formative years were spent in the town of Carbondale, Illinois, where she attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She learned to play guitar at the age...
– background vocals on 4 - Sandra Park – 1st violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
on 5 - Hae-Young Ham – violin on 5
- Rebecca Young Schatz – violaViolaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
on 5 - Maria Kitsoupolos – celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
on 5 - Erik Sanko – fretless bass on 7
- Hearn Gadbois – dumbek on 7
- Glen VelezGlen VelezGlen Velez is an American percussionist, vocalist, and composer, specializing in frame drums from around the world. He is largely responsible for the increasing popularity of frame drums in the United States and around the world....
– frame drumFrame drumA frame drum is a drum that has a drumhead width greater than its depth. Usually the single drumhead is made of rawhide or man-made materials. Shells are traditionally constructed of bent wood scarf jointed together; plywood and man-made materials are also used. Some frame drums have mechanical...
on 7 - Richard HorowitzRichard HorowitzRichard Horowitz is a composer, producer, arranger, and musician .He is best known for his work on The Sheltering Sky, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, which was awarded the 1990 Golden Globe and LA Film Critics Music Awards; Any Given Sunday, directed by Oliver Stone, which was awarded the 2000...
– neyNeyThe ney is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Middle Eastern music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. It is a very ancient instrument, with depictions of ney players appearing in wall paintings in the Egyptian pyramids and actual neys being found...
on 7 - Percy JonesPercy Jones (musician)Percy Jones is a Welsh bass guitarist, and was a member of jazz fusion band Brand X, from 1974 to 1980, and a reformed version which lasted from 1992 to 1997...
– fretless bass on 9 - Philip GlassPhilip GlassPhilip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
– string arrangement on 10 - Tim Baker – violin on 10
- Barry Finclair – violin on 10
- Fred Zlotkin – cello on 10
- Al Brown – viola on 10
Charts
Album| Chart (1990) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian albums chart | 74 |
| German albums chart | 16 |
| New Zealand albums chart | 24 |
| Norwegian albums chart | 2 |
| UK albums chart | 7 |
| The Billboard 200 | 50 |
Single
| Year | Single | Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | "Book of Dreams" | Billboard Modern Rock Tracks | 8 |