| |
| |
 |
 
|
 Shawn Colvin, a native of Vermillion, South Dakota, picked up her first guitar at 10 years old, and as her family moved around Canada and the Midwest, music went with her. She left college to pursue performing and composing full-time, a path that took her to Texas, San Francisco, New York City and Boston and allowed her to explore different genres with various bands, all the while honing her solo style. One of Shawn's first breaks came singing backup on Suzanne Vega's 1987 hit, "Luka." By 1988, Shawn had found a musical collaborator in John Leventhal, who co-produced (with Steve Addabbo) her first album, Steady On. Released in 1989, the album took home the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. Her debut album's success led to appearances on benefit albums and as guest vocalist on LPs by Suzanne Vega and Mary Chapin Carpenter, as well as tours with the likes of Neil Young, Richard Thompson, and Lyle Lovett. Then came Fat City, released in '92, which garnered two Grammy nominations: Best Contemporary Folk Recording and Best Female Pop Vocal for "I Don't Know Why." For her next recording, Colvin got to realize a long-time goal and in 1994, recorded Cover Girl, a collection of unique interpretations of her favorite songwriters' works. "Cover Girl was fun, and I think it helped make me more enthusiastic about the next batch of original songs," she says. Colvin had seemingly inexhaustible energy -- enough to let her become involved in several film projects. She can be seen performing in director Allison Anders' Grace of My Heart and contributed the song "Between Two Worlds" to the soundtrack. She also composed the score for HBO's Edie & Pen starring Stockard Channing and Jennifer Tilly and has contributed tunes to the Harvey Keitel-Cameron Diaz movie Head Above Water as well as the Kevin Costner-Renee Russo film Tin Cup. She also found time to lend vocals to records by Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lyle Lovett, and James Taylor's Hourglass, on which she sings "Yellow and Rose," a duet with Taylor. "Climb On A Back That's Strong," a tune from Fat City, can be heard in a key scene in the Academy Award-winning hit movie, As Good As It Gets. Shawn's interpretation of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" was originally recorded for a Doc Pomus tribute album and was used in the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski. In 1998, Colvin's song, "Nothin' On Me," from A Few Small Repairs, was chosen as the theme music for the NBC hit sitcom "Suddenly Susan," starring Brooke Shields. The producers of the show were so enamored of Shawn that they wrote her into an episode which aired during February Sweeps Week. She sang "I Don't Want To Live On The Moon" on the Sesame Street special, "Elmopalooza." Her version of the song appears on the Elmopalooza album and home video on Sony Wonder. Shawn also recorded a rendition of "The Chain" which appears on a Fleetwood Mac tribute album. Shawn can be heard performing Karl (World Party) Wallinger's "When The Rainbow Comes" on the #1 smash album Armageddon - The Album. Most recently, Shawn sang "But Beautiful" for Don Henley's "Stormy Weather 98," a concert of classic torch songs benefiting Walden Woods; Shawn's interpretation of the song will appear on a forthcoming benefit album.
The release of A Few Small Repairs (which debuted at #39 on Billboard's Top 200 album chart the week of October 6, 1996) prompted the press corps to take a serious look at Shawn and her music. "Even amid the swelling ranks of female artists in pop," wrote Andrew Abrahams in People (October 7, 1996), "Shawn Colvin is a vibrant original."
http://www.shawncolvin.com/
Other fan pages: |
| |||||||||||||
© 1999 Lilith Fair. Designed and maintained by Nettmedia. | |||||||||||||||
