Shawn Colvin satisfied with her place in the music world

ROSS RAIHALA, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Friday, February 22, 2002

Shawn Colvin took what amounted to a five-year break between studio albums, but that doesn't mean she wasn't working.

"I had a baby (and) that's what was time-consuming," she told Rolling Stone. "I just shifted my focus, but I've been real busy -- just not doing music.

"I feel ready to go. I feel I have to go, but I think it will be fun, because it's been awhile."

Colvin, who turned 46 last month, will perform a solo acoustic show Saturday night at Benaroya Hall in Seattle.

The South Dakota native felt plenty of pressure to return to music after her extended retreat.

Her 1989 debut "Steady On" won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. That led to an acclaimed career that peaked with a Song of the Year Grammy for "Sunny Came Home," from Colvin's 1996 album "A Few Small Repairs."

Following it up turned out to be tougher than she might have expected.

Writing and recording, she told Rolling Stone, "is a process and I thought I'd cracked it last time, because making ('A Few Small Repairs') was fairly smooth, but (2001's 'Whole New You') wasn't. It was harder to make, harder to get the songs out, and more time consuming."

Colvin, however, has grown accustomed to waiting.

She began her performing career in the early '80s as the leader of a rock group and then a member of the Texas-based swing band the Dixie Diesels.

Unsatisfied with the constraints of a group format, Colvin moved to New York in 1983 and began to establish herself in the folk community as a solo performer.

She paid the bills by taking roles in off-Broadway musicals and, in 1987, landed a gig singing with Suzanne Vega. Colvin provided backup vocals for Vega's breakthrough hit "Luka."

"It was thrilling," Colvin told one reporter. "I would turn on the radio just to see how many minutes it took before the song would come on, and it was never too many minutes, so it was really cool there for a while."

That same year, Colvin joined Vega's touring band and got a firsthand taste of playing for large audiences. She called it a great education.

"When we played a couple of places with 6,000 people, I was dying of jealousy, truthfully, because it was a real rock thing ... it (was) like a little sneak preview of what the possibilities are, what the problems are, what people ask of you."

It took Colvin a few years to fill halls on her own, but she had critics and a small, but devoted, base of fans from the beginning.

With her first album, "Steady On," she began connecting with listeners who appreciated both her songwriting and her vocals, which the New York Times described as such: "Imagine Rickie Lee Jones minus her jazzy mannerisms and slurred diction and you have a close approximation of Ms. Colvin's wonderful voice."

Her 1996 album "A Few Small Repairs" was a conscious effort to earn Colvin a wider audience, and it worked. She collaborated with her longtime writing/producing partner John Leventhal and found an undeniable magic.

"We share a similar sense of longing and wonder and despair and hope, and each express them in a way that really moves the other," Colvin told Entertainment Weekly.

After all the "Sunny Came Home" hoopla died down, Colvin took a break and gave birth to her first child, a girl, in the summer of 1998.

Later that year, Colvin released a low-key collection of mostly traditional cover versions titled "Holiday Songs and Lullabies." The All Music Guide praised it for its "calm but deeply felt performances of ... (songs) appropriate for putting the children to sleep on Christmas Eve."

Colvin worked with Leventhal once again on "Whole New You" and emerged last year in full swing to support it.

And, for the most part, Colvin seemed at ease with her place in music after five years away.

"I'm realistic about who I am and how old I am in relation to what's popular out there," she told the Austin Chronicle.

"The precedent has been set that I've had broad appeal, but I never felt like I was hit material. I'd made peace with that. It's still not part of my expectation, but (now) it's part of my experience."

Ross Raihala covers music and entertainment for The Olympian and can be reached at 360-754-5406 or rraihala@olympia. gannett.com.

Shawn Colvin

- What: The Grammy-winning singer/songwriter will perform a solo acoustic concert.

- When: 8 p.m. Feb. 23.

- Where: Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle.

- Tickets: $29-$34.50.

- For information: Call Ticketmaster Northwest at 206-628-0888.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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