![]() (Even when she was diagnosed and medicated, in the 1970s, drugs then had dreadful side-effects). Her parents, who married young, were the product of their time. Essentially, they tried to break my spirit, which wasn't an uncommon way to bring up a kid in those days." "They weren't prepared for a kid like me. In Tuff Kid, she sings "My daddy hit me but he couldn't quit me/ We showed each other how to feel alive", while in The Story, she sings of her parents, "And he never did guess/ in her cast-iron dress/ she was burning beyond recognition".Īfter a difficult childhood, Colvin went to college and it was there she started drinking. "I didn't drink until then because I was frightened of losing control, but when I started, when I was 19, that was it. I don't think anyone escapes into addiction because they feel good about themselves and the world is bothering them. "Sometimes, I still just want to take the edge off." It was so nice to take the edge off."Įven today, some 24 years after she stopped drinking, she struggles with it.Īnd if you're that anxious for that long, it takes a lot of energy to deal with it. Music played a huge part in keeping her together. She learnt to play guitar at 10 and moved to New York in her early 20s where, after playing in various bands, she met John Leventhal, the producer and writer with whom she's maintained a creative partnership for 25 years. Leventhal's fingerprints are visible on most of Colvin's nine albums and it was with him she achieved her most commercial success with Sunny Came Home, which won song of the year and record of the year at the 1998 Grammys. Given her tendency and talent for writing personal songs, it's ironic that Colvin is best known for a song that isn't about her at all. A feisty murder ballad, Sunny Came Home, is about a woman, betrayed and belittled by her husband, who returns home and sets fire to her house. "For the record, I've never set fire to my house or murdered anyone," she says, impishly. If Colvin had a breakthrough, A Few Small Repairs, the album containing Sunny Came Home, was it. ![]() Another song from the album became the theme tune of the short-lived Brooke Shields sitcom, Suddenly Susan, and she recorded songs for film soundtracks, among them Julia Roberts' Runaway Bride. She's appeared in The Simpsons, in which she voiced Rachel Jordan, the Christian rock star who dated Ned Flanders after Maude's death. Since then, she’s followed her muse wherever it’s led her, whether cutting a duo album with Steve Earle, releasing covers records and holiday albums, or turning out sharply observed original tunes.And yet, she never fully crossed into the mainstream, remaining more of a cult favourite, a hidden gem, a diamond in the rough. It was the foreboding but infectious single “Sunny Came Home” from 1996’s A Few Small Repairs that finally put Colvin on the pop charts: The song became a Top 10 hit and the album eventually went platinum. Colvin earned a great critical reputation, but her first three albums didn’t make much commercial impact. She soon got a deal with Columbia and released her first album, the Grammy-winning Steady On, in 1989. A gifted harmony singer, she sang on Suzanne Vega’s 1987 breakout hit, “Luka,” which boosted Colvin’s profile. By the ’80s, she was living and working in New York City, and she became a presence on the folk circuit. Born in South Dakota in 1956, Colvin came up on folk music and began performing professionally while attending college in Illinois. Shawn Colvin’s unique but deeply rooted vocal style and penetrating lyrics helped make her one of the most distinctive artists to emerge from the ’80s folk scene.
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