On the cusp of a 30th anniversary tour behind her biggest album, A Few Small Repairs, Shawn Colvin talks Lee Campbell through the soundtrack of her life.
There's not much in life that feels more pure and honest than an artist performing alone on stage, bearing just their instrument and voice.
For singer/songwriter Shawn Colvin, now in her fifth decade as a recording artist, it's a performance style that she's steadfastly stuck with from the very beginning – the golden rule being that any song she might write or be given had to stand up on solo acoustic guitar too, "because that's the basis of what I do, and always has been, to play and sing alone."
With a new UK and Ireland tour starting at the end of this month, celebrating the 30th anniversary of her fourth and best known album A Few Small Repairs, Colvin is looking back on the platinum-selling record and its seemingly unlikely rise to the top of adult contemporary radio.
"My most vivid memories of making it have to do with how fun and simple it was, which has not always been the case," she tells BEST FIT. “The previous three records, there was always a push to find a single. I don't consider myself a singles artist, so things were kind of forced and compromises were made on my part. But our edict with A Few Small Repairs was, we don't care about radio. We're gonna do our best work with no compromises and that's that. Of course, the irony is I had a hit song.”
Written towards the end of the sessions, inspired by the cover art she'd already chosen for the album (a three-eyed woman holding a lit match), “Sunny Came Home” was a runaway success, giving Colvin a top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and winning her two prestigious Grammys, for Song of the Year and Record of the Year, in 1998. But there's much more to A Few Small Repairs besides. It's a deeply personal album for Colvin, written at the time when her first marriage was ending, with other standouts including “Wichita Skyline” – a song that touches Colvin to this day – and “What I Get Paid For”, a co-write with Crowded House's Neil Finn, who added his voice to the chorus.
A Few Small Repairs also benefits from the production and writing of Colvin's close collaborator John Leventhal, who has played an instrumental role in her most successful albums, including her 1989 debut, Steady On; the haunting “Shotgun Down the Avalanche” is fundamentally a document of their crumbling romantic relationship at the time.
Having landed a contract with Columbia Records through touring with Suzanne Vega, Steady On eventually went on to win the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1991. Colvin also sang backing vocals on Vega's masterpiece “Luka”, with Vega later returning the favour on Colvin's superb “Diamond in the Rough” – also the title of her 2012 memoir – and both were part of Sarah McLachlan original Lilith Fair tour in 1997.
Born in rural South Dakota, raised in Illinois and later in London, Ontario, Colvin has long called the Texan city of Austin her home, and this patchwork of North American locations is evident in her songs, with her music combining a mix of yearning, personal scar tissue, joy, and life on the road. Aside from the eclectic nature of the songs that Colvin lays out below as the soundtrack of her life, her love for the big screen is equally evident, with at least two having movie connections, both with strong American historical timestamps. Colvin herself appeared in the movies Grace of My Heart and Crazy, the latter inspired by the life of Nashville guitarist Hank Garland.
“A Walk Across the Rooftops” by The Blue Nile
SHAWN COLVIN: The whole album Walk Across the Rooftops is brilliant to me. I first heard it when touring with Suzanne Vega in the UK and Europe in 1987. We were on a bus and driving who knows where, through the Alps maybe? I can’t remember, it's all a blur, but someone on the bus had the CD of this album and said, “You must absolutely listen to this.”
Paul Buchanan started singing, and they captured my heart right away. They were just three guys, but there was such an atmospheric blend of production and writing. I’ve been listening back to it lately and I think it’s just stunning.
I got to open for them actually, in Glasgow and in a few other places. They'd never played live before, but their manager at the time encouraged them too – as did I, because their manager was my manager too.
We corralled a guitar player… well, we didn't corral him, he was more than willing, and a bass player. The show I remember the best was Glasgow, in 1990, because it was a hometown crowd to them and their last gig of the tour. My assistant manager and I were sitting in a box to the side, up top. I had procured a bunch of roses. So when they were taking their last bow after the encore, we threw the roses from the balcony onto the stage. I adore them personally and musically.
BEST FIT: What do you love most about this song in particular?
The production, the lyrics, Paul’s singing, the pictures I see when I hear it, the passionate proclamation of being in love.
You’ve said you couldn’t take on any Blue Nile songs for your Cover Girl album because they were too special already. Have you been tempted to record one since?
No. Their sound is so entirely unique. I wouldn’t know how to make their songs my own without diminishing the spirit and artistry of theirs. However, I could be persuaded to sing harmony with Paul someday on “Because Of Toledo”. I think I could manage that without compromising it. At its essence, that song is more like what I do – just guitar and vocal basically.
“The Only Living Boy in New York” by Simon & Garfunkel
SHAWN COLVIN: This song has always felt very religious to me, not in a lyrical sense but in the production itself and the organ, there's so much stuff going on. The parts where Art Garfunkel is singing “Here I am” feel just like a choir to me. It's one of those songs that gives me chills. It’s from the Bridge Over Troubled Water album, and I got to see them on that tour in my hometown at the time, which was Carbondale, Illinois. I went to high school there and I believe I was 15 years old.
BEST FIT: Have you ever crossed paths with them?
I have crossed paths with Paul Simon a few times. I'm friends with Phil Glass and they are close, so I’ve met him socially a couple of times over at Phil's place. And I can't remember all the details now, but there was a tribute concert around 20 years ago where various artists were singing his songs, and Allison Krauss and I sang “The Boxer”. Paul came backstage while we were rehearsing and took a listen. No pressure, right? We were like, "Oh god, what if he hates it?"
After that event, he wrote me a nice note, so I've kept that, obviously. To say Paul Simon is underrated is the wrong word, completely the wrong word, but he's a genius. The body of his work is just off the charts. I feel like he’s maybe been one step behind Dylan in terms of what people's perception of Paul Simon has been, so I always think he got a bit of the short shrift for a while.
You've played quite a few Simon & Garfunkel songs over the years, including this one. What makes “The Only Living Boy in New York” so satisfying to sing, not just to listen to?
Hard to pin that answer down. Certainly playing it by myself flattens out some of the dynamics in the brilliant production. Those in-your-face drum hits during “Half of the time we’re gone but we don’t know where, we don’t know where…”. Art being a choir of angels. The bassline. I can’t provide these elements in a solo performance. But it works anyway because it’s an intimate, honest, and vulnerable song. It’s lonely. It’s dynamic. It’s simple. Those elements can work well when done solo / acoustic and I couldn’t help but learn it and do it. I had to.
“Hejira” by Joni Mitchell
SHAWN COLVIN: I'm a massive Joni Mitchell fan and I think Hejira is my favourite record of hers. It was a girl from church camp, when I was 14, who told me to listen to Joni. I knew “Both Sides Now” already, but I don't know if I was aware who wrote it, so I went back home and I bought Clouds, her second record, and she became my idol right off the bat – and still is.
I did my estate planning not too long ago and my estate planner said, “Well, do you want to plan your memorial?” I was like, “Dude, that is morbid.” But then I got home and thought, well, best to save my loved ones the trouble, you know? So I kind of got into it and thought about what songs they should play? “Hejira” is one of them.
What do I love about this song? The breadth of the story and the depth of it. I mean, obviously she's traveling, obviously she's leaving a relationship, but the poetry – and I'll say this about some of the other songs – the lyrics are just off the charts.
The song goes on and on also, between each verse, which begin in major keys on the guitar there’s these little breaks she plays in a minor chord. I don't know what tuning she's in. That was another thing about Joni Mitchell. You couldn't figure it out. It was beyond comprehension, until she put out the songbook For the Roses, where they listed out the tunings note for note, for each string on the guitar. That was like gold dust. Oh yeah, that just opened a whole new world.
She's been such an inspiration. I don't even want to say an influence. I could never rise to that, it's just not possible. But an inspiration, yeah. When I first heard Joni Mitchell, I was like, "Anything's possible for a woman then." She's been my hero ever since.
“Our Town Suite” by Aaron Copland performed by The London Symphony Orchestra
SHAWN COLVIN: Our Town is a classic American play by Thornton Wilder, written at the end of the ‘30s, about two families living in a small town in New Hampshire, which might not sound much but it’s as massive as it is broad. It's just a tiny little town called Grover’s Corners, but there are all these small instances that happen and add up to these overarching, overwhelming themes of life and death.
They’ve adapted the play for film several times – I remember one in the ‘80s with Spalding Gray as the Stage Manager who narrates the film – but the 1941 version, for which Aaron Copland wrote the music, is brilliant. There’s no lyrics or voice or anything like that, it’s performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
The music starts just the way I've described it. Smaller, beautiful, quaint. It's gorgeous. Then the piece morphs into this grand weighty section that encompasses God. I swear, it's just so moving to me. I don't know what it means, in terms of the dissonance and the intervals. I have no clue, but I know that I love it and I love Aaron Copland.
“Once Upon a Time in the West” by Ennio Morricone, as played by Buddy Emmons
BEST FIT: Are you a bit of a movie buff, Shawn?
SHAWN COLVIN: I am, but I have to give credit to John Leventhal for this one, as he was the one who introduced me to this live performance by Buddy Emmons, the pedal steel guitar player. The song was written by Ennio Morricone for the spaghetti western of the same name, and it’s a beautiful theme, but this version makes me cry every time. I think there was an album at one time, but now you can only hear it on YouTube.
This recording is another one that I picked for my memorial. I'm not kidding. I love the way Buddy Emmons plays the pedal steel, he's carrying the whole melody. There's a full band, but it’s basically just him with a slight little accompaniment of electric piano, maybe some bass notes. Knowing that someone has written such an amazing melody – an unforgettable, moving, heart-wrenching, but gorgeous and positive melody – it just pulls at my heart.
Do you ever find yourself wishing you’d written the melody yourself?
The melody here is everything. Of course I wish I’d written it, but I don’t think about that. I’m just glad Morricone did. I weep every time I hear it.
“Wichita Lineman” by Glen Campbell & Jimmy Webb
SHAWN COLVIN: You know, Bob Dylan says this is the best song ever written.
I feel like to hear people play live is kind of a litmus test but there's a live recording of Glen and Jimmy, called In Session, that’s just brilliant. They were such a pair, and made a lot of great music. The production is great, the strings – it's sort of indescribable because I am not musically trained.
BEST FIT: Did you discover this song yourself on the radio?
Yes, I heard it on the radio, but it was really through my father, who was a Glen Campbell freak. We religiously watched The Glen Campbell Show because of songs like this, and I still listen to it. The Glen Campbell Show was a product of The Smothers Brothers Show. Because he was such a regular on that show, they gave him his own.
Who would be your first musical guests on The Shawn Colvin Show, if that ever happened?
Presuming I can go anywhere with this, I might choose Judy Garland and Laura Nyro.
“Across the Universe” by The Beatles
SHAWN COLVIN: First of all, nothing rhymes in the song. You don't think about that when you hear it. But every time I listen to the lyrics and try to sing it myself, it's difficult to sing. It's such a stream of consciousness, the writing.
It's a song of…I had a word for it earlier today, when I was thinking about it. Contentment is the wrong word. I mean, “Nothing's going to change my world.” But the imagery and the nature of the lyrics, there's nothing painful in it. It's just paradise, like his own utopia. It's not psychedelic, but there's certainly a burst of colour in the song. It's a million suns, you know? It's universal, it's just big. That's the best way I can put it.
BEST FIT: Have you ever met Paul McCartney?
Actually, once I have. I live in Austin, Texas, and McCartney was gonna play Dallas. This must have been in the early 2000s, because I remember my daughter was three years old and she was born in ‘98.
Anyway, there's a DJ here in town named Jody Denberg and he's the DJ for mainly adult alternative music. We had a great radio station here that is no more, KGSR, and Jody was the main DJ. He was such a champion of me and many others. He’d play songs that you might not have heard otherwise, like Dave Matthews before everyone was playing Dave Matthews, or Sonny Landreth, just amazing stuff.
Well, Jody is the Beatles freak of the world. Like, in the game, Beatles Trivial Pursuit, one of the questions is, “Who did Ringo dedicate his sixth album to?,” and Jody knew. Anyway, how he did it I don't know, but he had found an ‘in’ with Paul and was set to interview him in Dallas. He said to me, “You’ve got to come with me when I go to interview Paul.”
“Right,” I said, “That security's got to be on steroids!” He goes, “I know, you can carry the equipment.” It was a DAT recorder, and it worked. So I got to sit there while Jody was interviewing Paul and I could hardly breathe. My visual of Paul was in profile, which reminded me so much of the Revolver album cover where the drawing of Paul is him in profile. That's when I realised it was really him, my gosh. And I wept, but very subtly.
Did you have to blow your cover and tell him that, actually, you’re also a musician?
Jody blew my cover, and Paul was very sweet. But you know, like apropos of Paul, what he actually responded to in terms of what he knew about me was that I had a three-year old daughter. He said, “Say hi to your three year old.” He was lovely. I have a picture.
“You Send Me” by Aretha Franklin
SHAWN COLVIN: Sam Cooke wrote this song, and if you listen to Sam Cooke's gospel records, they’re out of control. It's not pop music, it's deep. But at any rate, I digress.
What I love about this version, aside from Aretha's otherworldly vocals, is that she plays piano. She was an amazing pianist and grew up in the church with gospel music. The song starts off with her playing piano and, as the intro is winding down to step into the song, she hits these chords. I don't know what those chords are, but they're magic. And then they repeat later on in the song. That intro just slays me. Aretha playing piano is something to behold.
BEST FIT: Do you remember where you were when you first heard it?
I think I was in New York. Again, it might've been with John Leventhal. He kind of opened my eyes to a lot of music I hadn't listened to. Not that I didn't listen to Aretha or know her music, but he knew it deeply, and other stuff I wouldn't probably have listened to. He also got me very deep into the Beach Boys.
You and Aretha performed at the same ceremony in 1998, when you won the Grammys for "Sunny Came Home". Did you get to say hi?
No, I didn’t meet her. Aretha seemed very private. It was an honour to be on the same programme, though, and to see her slay an opera song up close and personal.
“A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke
BEST FIT: Sam Cooke's on this list twice. Is that a statement of how much regard you have for him?
SHAWN COLVIN: Yeah, it is, and “A Change is Gonna Come”... I mean, it's so topical and moving. It's a civil rights song and that was a big deal, because Sam Cooke was already well known for all his great hits and for his gospel music. As I look back, the balls it took for him to write this song. The spirit and emotion in his vocal is just breathtaking. It cuts. There's pain in there. But I think most importantly, it's the music that got me.
What do you hear in the music? Does it have a special ingredient for you?
It’s his singing. Everything about the song is brilliant: the music, the lyrics, the orchestration, the message. But Sam’s vocal passion, the way he pleads for justice, kindness, and brotherhood, and his resolve, his promise, that a change will come someday. It’s an anthem.
You mentioned his courage. As a songwriter yourself, have there been moments where you’ve had to be brave enough to say something because you sense the song demands it?
Yes, there are lyrics I’ve kept even though I’ve been uncomfortable about it. But telling the truth is really at the heart of what moves me. My heroes taught me that. In fact, I think if what you want to say scares you, then you probably ought to say it.
Shawn Colvin begins her 15-date tour of the UK and Ireland on September 30 in Milton Keynes. Tickets on sale now.
Sign up to Best Fit's Substack for regular dispatches from the world of pop culture