SUZANNE VEGA Vinyl Records and CDs

... backing vocals.) Vega's next album, 1990's Days of Open Hand, wasn't as big a seller as Solitude Standing. But in one of the flukes that makes the record industry such a rich pageant for observers, Vega scored another radio hit when British dance-music production team DNA provided the a cappella Solitude opener "Tom's Diner" with a bopping track. An international smash, the single led to an entire CD of related remakes. The new musical context provided by DNA may have encouraged Vega's own experimental tendencies, which surfaced most compellingly on 1992's 99.9F, produced by then-husband Mitchell Froom (Los Lobos, Crowded House). Froom also produced 1996's Nine Objects of Desire. Tried and True, a "best of" collection, appeared in 1999, and Songs in Red and Gray, her first work after her divorce from Froom, was released in 2001. Vega responded to the September 11 attacks -- in which her brother Tim might have been killed had he not called in sick that day -- with the Vigil Project, which issued a disc that included songs by Vega, Christine Lavin, Jack Hardy and many others.