Shawn Colvin on the Cayamo Cruise

I was very excited to see Shawn Colvin in person. I have been meaning to write her a letter for years just to say, “Your music opens my heart.” I don’t know what it is about her exactly - I guess it’s the sweetness in her voice and the honesty in her lyrics. Every Christmas I pop her CD, “Holiday Songs and Lullabies” in the boom box and I am soothed.

It was day five of the cruise when we finally saw Shawn. She came out wearing a short black and white dress (long shirt?) over loose black pants, a little gray sweater, silver bracelets, rhinestones on her guitar strap and a black newsboy/Greek fishing cap. Buddy Miller accompanied her on guitar.

The first song she did was Donovan’s, “Catch the Wind”. I noticed that she enunciated her words and sang very clearly, more than other artists. She and Buddy adjusted the sound and tuned their guitars a lot. What was really cool about it, though, was not the feeling that you were at a “show” being entertained, but more like she invited you to her house and she was in the kitchen with her guitar, making tea, and talking with you and singing songs too. She created an intimate feeling right off the bat.

A few years ago she was launched into pop music fame with the song, “Sunny Came Home”. People were yelling for various songs and when that one was mentioned she said to the crowd something like, “You people don’t want to hear that song, do you?” and there were cheers. (See A Few Small Repairs.)

She said, “I was telling somebody that this is like the old days, when we were poor, going from town to town.” Buddy quipped, “The stage was moving then, too!” (An interesting side-note is that the ship was rocking and affected the balance of many of the performers.)

She did, “Another long one” (See Steady On):

“And it's gonna be another long one tonight
It's just me and my well-intentioned spite
I said someone did this to me
But no one did, there's no injustices
I just can't afford to be right no more
I bought myself another bad dream tonight
With these little boys in my head sleeping tight
It's gonna be another long one tonight”

Buddy has a little grin like the cartoon character, Charlie Brown. It’s a squiggly little line, very cute. It was on his face through every performance while backing up other headliners or doing his own show. Shawn looked at him and said, “I haven’t had such a singing party in a long time.”

She said, “Last night I won $350 playing blackjack. That’s all I need is another addiction. John Hiatt said, Hey, that’s your next song!”

Then she and Buddy played, “Polaroids”. I have to post the entirety of the lyrics to this song here. The lyrics are a masterpiece; stunning, insightful, truthful and touching. She rivals Joni Mitchell in her ability to go into the depths of feelings and observations and then convey them lyrically, vocally and musically. (See Polaroids: A Greatest Hits Collection.)

“Please no more therapy
Mother take care of me
Piece me together with a
Needle and thread
Wrap me in eiderdown
Lace from your wedding gown
Fold me and lay me down
On your bed
Or liken me to a shoe
Blackened and spit-shined through
Kicking back home to you
Smiling back home
Singing back home to you
Laughing back home to you
Dragging back home to you

I was so wary then
The ugly American
Thinner than oxygen
Tough as a whore
I said you can lie to me
I own what's inside of me
And nothing surprises me anymore
But forests in Germany
Kids in the Tuileries
Broken-down fortresses
In old Italy
And claiming his victory
Shrouded in mystery
He went running away with me

Back in our home New York
Walking these streets forlorn
We all in our uniforms
Black and black
Doing that slouch and jive
The artist must survive
We've got all we need we cried
And we don't look back
Thinking we had it made
Poised for the hit parade
Knee deep in accolades
The conceptual pair
But ever the malcontent
He left without incident
Vanished into thin air

Now I am always amazed
Words can fill up a page
Pages fill up the days
Between him and me
But the vows that we never keep
From bedrooms to business-speak
Make me remember how cheap
Words can be
And the letters I wrote you of
Were those of the desperate stuff
Like begging for love in a suicide threat
But I am too young to die
Too old for a lullaby
Too tired for life on the ledge

But I had a dream last night
Of lovers who walked the plank
Out on the edge of time
Amidst ridicule
They laughed as they rocked and reeled
Over the mining fields
Coming to rest on this ship of fools
But he just took polaroids
Of her smile in the light
Of the dawn of the menacing sky
And before they went overboard
She turned and held up a card
And it said Valentine”

She said, “I can’t tell you how great it is to be up here with Buddy.” She said they met in 1976. Shawn went to San Francisco and Buddy went to NY getting into the Urban Cowboy kind of thing. Buddy’s wife, Julie, went back to Texas, and he needed a singer, so she joined the Buddy Miller band. They sang, “Fill me up”.

She told another story, (paraphrased), “This is how sick it was. We used to go to Albany or maybe it was New Paltz. We went to this bar with a dark, low ceiling. We did shots called “kamikazes”. I was the only girl in the band, it was like having a bunch of brothers. They protect you if they have to but then they’ll mess with you. Buddy was the sweetest one. Anyway, I said I’d drive the van and then I blacked out. We almost died. Another time I almost died, I got a studio apartment in the East Village for $220 a month. The bathtub was in the kitchen. Plaster was coming off the ceiling, there were roaches. One night the window was open and it was pouring rain and I lived on the sixth floor. I stood on the window sill trying to shut the window and I slipped, it was really slick, and I could’ve fallen out the window.” They laughed as she related these and other stories.

They did, “Shotgun down the avalanche” and “Wichita Skyline”, which she stated was her favorite composition that she had written with John Levanthal. They did a B.W. Stevenson song, “If I don’t see you before I go”. Also, “That don’t worry me now” and “Summer Dress”.

She said with a smile, “The secret about Buddy is, he’s not real.” Somebody in the audience yelled, “You’re a fox!” And she said, “Damn right!” and then, “This next song is a better song of self loathing” and she sang, “I’m gone”.

Her articulation and sweetness of voice throughout the concert was stunning. Her singing seemed effortless, full of nuance and sincerity. She said, “I wrote this next one, “Tennesee”, a long time ago when I was mad at a guy. I almost called it, “Same shit, different state”. My parents are here, and my mother asked me, why don’t you write a love song with nothing bad in it?”

From “Tennessee”:

Oh you kissed the soul of a rebel
In a yankee girl
You got to me
I heard you callin’ ’round the world
From your back roads
Tennessee

I saw somebody standin’
In a field with a crutch
Behind his rich southern daddy
With a midas touch
They said be outta here by sundown
They said good luck
You might say I was the stranger
Who knew too much

Somebody took a hope lock from my heart
And threw it down your back roads
Tennessee

Oh you feel the north wind blow
That’s only me
I want to hear some rock and roll
On your back roads
Tennessee”

Later she said, “Come out Emmylou, you fox!” Emmylou and Patty Griffin (Patty is a fox too!) came out. The four part harmony was exquisite in “My world has ended, my baby’s gone”, “Cinnamon Road” and “There’s a Rugged Road”. Emmylou had glasses on and she and Patty were holding printouts of the lyrics, which made everything feel very informal. They grinned ecstatically after each angelic intertwining of their voices and the audience cheered. It was beautiful.

Brandi Carlile came out and they did “Tuff Kid” and “Another Plane Went Down”. Shawn said at the end, “I thought I’d rather eat dirt than go on a cruise, but now I’m a believer. You’re the fans that know the music and give back to us.” Then she said, “I’ve never been so lucky - Emmylou, Patty, Buddy and YOU (to the audience.)”

It was sweet to be acknowledged by the performers and to share in the genuine love that was mutually felt. Shawn Colvin is a very giving person and an exceptional talent and it was an honor to be there.

Here's another album link: Fat City