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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZCOLVIN, Shawn(b Shanna Colvin, 10 Jan. '56, Vermillion SD) Folk-style singer, songwriter, guitarist. In her home town (pop. 6,000) there wasn't even pop radio; Joni Mitchell's second album came as a revelation. She began singing in clubs, half her material Mitchell covers; by her late twenties she had known anorexia and various addictions but pulled herself together; her itinerant progress around the USA has resulted in music that is both earthy and urbane. She worked as a backing singer with Suzanne Vega; her own album Live '88 on Plump began as gig merchandise leading to a Sony contract; seven of the eleven songs appeared on her Grammy-winning proper debut Steady On '89, another on Fat City '92 on Columbia, more production not necessarily improving them. Cover Girl '94 made the top 50 albums in Billboard; the album of covers impressed shop assistants in record stores, but after she moved from LA to Austin A Few Small Repairs '96, again with John Leventhal producing, playing and co-writing, was an assured collection, personal and impressionistic, like Raymond Carver set to music, with guest Lyle Lovett on one track. It seemed to make a meal of her divorce (always fertile ground for songwriters), but in fact the songs had been written before she split up with Simon Tassano (Richard Thompson's tour manager) and they remained friendly. Each album has been different; she will continue to surprise, doing as she pleases, having found the poet inside. |