Shawn Colvin
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Shawn Colvin (born Shawna Lee Colvin, January 10, 1956)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for her 1997 Grammy Award-winning song "Sunny Came Home".
Early lifeEdit
Colvin was born Shawna Lee Colvin in Vermillion, South Dakota, and spent her youth in Carbondale, Illinois, and London, Ontario, Canada.<ref name="All Music"/> She is the second of four children.<ref name="Diamond">Template:Cite book</ref> She learned to play guitar at the age of 10<ref name="All Music"/> and grew up listening to her father's collection of music, which included artists such as Pete Seeger and the Kingston Trio.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
CareerEdit
Her first paid gig came just after she started college at Southern Illinois University. Colvin performed at local venues in Carbondale and later formed a band. For six months, they expanded their fanbase throughout Illinois. During this time, Colvin struggled with alcohol and other drugs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She later formed Dixie Diesels, a country-swing group. Colvin relocated to Austin, Texas, with the group and then entered "the folk circuit in and around Berkeley, California",<ref name="Texas Music">Koster, Rick (2000) Texas Music, First St. Martin's Griffin, page 219, retrieved May 25, 2012</ref> before straining her vocal cords and taking a sabbatical at the age of 24.<ref>Shawn Colvin autobiography Diamond in the Rough, pages 49–57</ref>
Colvin relocated to New York City, joining the Buddy Miller Band in 1980<ref name=Diamond/> and later became involved in the Fast Folk cooperative of Greenwich Village.<ref>Hochman, Steve. "A Folk Stylist Hangs on to Intimacy Artist: Shawn Colvin", Los Angeles Times, November 26, 1989; accessed June 5, 2009.</ref>
While participating in off-Broadway shows such as Pump Boys and Dinettes,<ref name="All Music"/> she was featured in Fast Folk magazine, and in 1987, producer Steve Addabbo hired her to sing backup vocals on the song "Luka" by Suzanne Vega.<ref name="All Music"/><ref name="Texas Music"/>
After touring with Vega,<ref name="Texas Music"/> Colvin signed a recording contract with Columbia Records<ref name="All Music"/><ref name="Texas Music"/> and released her debut album Steady On in 1989. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.<ref name="All Music">Woodstra, Chris Shawn Colvin Biography All Music, retrieved May 25, 2012</ref> Colvin's second album Fat City was released in 1992 and received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. Her song "I Don't Know Why" was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Female Pop Vocal category.<ref name="All Music"/> In 1993, she moved back to Austin and, in 1994, released the album Cover Girl.<ref name="Texas Music"/> In 1995, Colvin released her album Live 88 a collection of live recordings from 1988.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1996, Colvin released her album A Few Small Repairs and, in 1997, her single "Sunny Came Home" spent four weeks at the number one spot on the Adult Contemporary chart.<ref name="All Music"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The song won the 1998 Grammy Awards for both Song and Record of the Year.<ref name="All Music"/> Colvin released the album Holiday Songs and Lullabies in 1998<ref>Template:Citation</ref> and in 2001 released another album called Whole New You.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> In 2004, she released a compilation of past songs called, Polaroids: A Greatest Hits Collection.<ref name="All Music"/>
In 2006, Colvin left Columbia Records and released a 15-song album called These Four Walls on her new label, Nonesuch Records, which featured contributions by Patty Griffin and Teddy Thompson.<ref>"Live", Nonesuch.com.</ref> In 2009 she released Live, which was recorded at the jazz club Yoshi's in Oakland, California.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Colvin's eighth studio album, All Fall Down, was released in 2012 and was produced by Buddy Miller at his home studio in Nashville, Tennessee. The album featured guest appearances by Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Jakob Dylan.<ref name="All Music"/> Colvin published her memoir Diamond in the Rough in 2012.<ref name="nytimes.com">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2016, she recorded an album with Steve Earle called Colvin and Earle.<ref name="Guardian 16 June 2016">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="New York Times 23 June 2016">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Rolling Stone 31 March 2016">Template:Cite magazine</ref> A Few Small Repairs was reissued in 2017, including its first pressing on vinyl, for its 20th anniversary.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Colvin has made vocal contributions to songs by James Taylor, Béla Fleck, Edwin McCain, Shawn Mullins, Elliott Murphy and Bruce Hornsby, and collaborated with Sting on the song "One Day She'll Love Me".<ref name="All Music"/> She recorded as a duet the title track to Curtis Stigers' 1995 album "Time Was". Colvin voiced Rachel Jordan, Ned Flanders' love interest after Maude is killed, in the Simpsons episodes "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" and "I'm Goin' to Praiseland",<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and lent her vocals to Mary Chapin Carpenter's 1992 recordings "The Hard Way" and "Come On Come On".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
ActingEdit
Colvin has appeared in several films and television shows, including the films Grace of My Heart, Heartbreakers and Crazy as well as television shows The Larry Sanders Show, Suddenly Susan, The Simpsons, Fame L.A., and Baywatch.
Personal lifeEdit
Colvin has been married twice, first to Simon Tassano in 1993 whom she divorced in 1995 and to photographer Mario Erwin, whom she married in 1997 and divorced in 2002. She gave birth to a daughter in July 1998.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Colvin has taken part in several triathlons.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Colvin says she has struggled on and off with depression, alcoholism and anxiety. She wrote about these struggles in her 2012 memoir Diamond in the Rough, published by HarperCollins.<ref name="bostonglobe">Template:Cite news</ref>
Awards and recognitionEdit
Grammy AwardsEdit
| Year | Album/Track | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Steady On | Best Contemporary Folk Album | Template:Won |
| 1994 | "I Don't Know Why" | Best Female Pop Vocal Performance | Template:Nom |
| Fat City | Best Contemporary Folk Album | Template:Nom | |
| 1995 | Cover Girl | Template:Nom | |
| 1997 | A Few Small Repairs | Best Pop Vocal Album | Template:Nom |
| "Get Out of This House" | Best Female Pop Vocal Performance | Template:Nom | |
| 1998 | "Sunny Came Home" | Template:Nom | |
| Record of the Year | Template:Won | ||
| Song of the Year | Template:Won | ||
| 2009 | Shawn Colvin Live | Best Contemporary Folk Album | Template:Nom |
Other awardsEdit
| Year | Awards | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Billboard Music Video Awards | FAN.tastic Video | "Sunny Came Home" | Template:Nom |
| Billboard Music Awards | Top Adult Top 40 Track | Template:Nom | ||
| 1998 | APRA Music Awards | Most Performed Foreign Work | Template:Nom | |
| MVPA Awards | Best Adult Contemporary Video | Template:Won | ||
| 1999 | ASCAP Pop Music Awards | Most Performed Song | Template:Won | |
| 2001 | Video Premiere Awards | Best Original Song | "Great Big World" | Template:Nom |
| 2016 | Americana Music Honors & Awards | Americana Trailblazer Award | Herself | Template:Won {{safesubst:#if:| |
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DiscographyEdit
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AlbumsEdit
- Steady On (1989)<ref name="npr.org">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Fat City (1992)
- Cover Girl (1994)
- A Few Small Repairs (1996)
- Holiday Songs and Lullabies (1998)
- Whole New You (2001)
- These Four Walls (2006)
- All Fall Down (2012)
- Uncovered (2015)
- Colvin & Earle (2016, with Steve Earle)
- The Starlighter (2018)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Steady On: 30th Anniversary Acoustic Edition (2019)<ref name="npr.org"/>
Compilation albumsEdit
- Polaroids: A Greatest Hits Collection (2004)
- The Best of Shawn Colvin (2010)
- Playlist: The Very Best of Shawn Colvin (2012)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Live albumsEdit
- Live '88 (1995)
- Live (2009)
- Live from These Four Walls: My Favorite Movie Songs (2021)
- Lockdown: Live from Arlyn Studios (2021)
DVDsEdit
- Music in High Places – Live in Bora Bora (2002)
- Polaroids: A Video Collection (2004)