Shawn Colvin Queen's Hall Edinburgh 22nd September 2023 Review
Shawn Colvin was at The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight, a date on her current UK tour, and fans were obviously not missing this chance to catch up with her on this rare Scottish (or even UK) performance.
Shawn Colvin has a wide ranging back catalogue of original songs and cover versions built up over a career spanning more than three decades, and if the applause from the audience when Shawn Colvin took to this stage as a solo artist is anything to go by, people have taken so many of her songs into their hearts. Opening this evening’s set with, “Killing the Blues”, it was obvious that here was someone with a rare gift for not only telling a story but drawing the listener into the people and places of this self-contained little world.
This show was at times a piece of pure nostalgia for many obvious long time Shawn Colvin fans, part reminiscence, part stories behind songs, but most of all a relaxed and happy Shawn on stage who was obviously pleased to be re-connecting live with people who have aged over the years with her songs and her music.
Songs on the set list this evening took us back to Shawn’s very first studio album in 1989 “Steady On” and the hugely popular (with this audience) “Diamond in the Rough”. “Shotgun Down The Avalanche” (written with John Leventhal) was another song that this audience also recognised from the first few chords of the song,
Adding her own unique take to other people’s songs has always been part of Shawn Colvin’s music and a slowed down version of “I’ll Be Back” by the Beatles somehow gave this song an element of sadness that the up-tempo beat of the original lacked. If you are a songwriter/story teller like Shawn Colvin then sooner or later you always seem to get drawn to the words and music of Tom Waits, and “Hold On” was simply a very good example of a story and a song being passed from one person to another.
Perhaps the biggest applause for any song this evening though came for the very dark “Sunny Came Home” and Steve Earle was right when he told Shawn Colvin that this was a murder ballad. Murder Ballads have their own special place in traditional Scottish music, so very appropriate to hear this song performed live in Scotland.
Shawn Colvin’s gifts as a songwriter/story teller can easily over-shadow her skills as a guitarist, but here tonight, this solo set played on guitar (apart from a piano for encore songs) gave us all a chance to hear just how many different playing techniques are well used and performed in these songs.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Shawn Colvin has a wide ranging back catalogue of original songs and cover versions built up over a career spanning more than three decades, and if the applause from the audience when Shawn Colvin took to this stage as a solo artist is anything to go by, people have taken so many of her songs into their hearts. Opening this evening’s set with, “Killing the Blues”, it was obvious that here was someone with a rare gift for not only telling a story but drawing the listener into the people and places of this self-contained little world.
This show was at times a piece of pure nostalgia for many obvious long time Shawn Colvin fans, part reminiscence, part stories behind songs, but most of all a relaxed and happy Shawn on stage who was obviously pleased to be re-connecting live with people who have aged over the years with her songs and her music.
Songs on the set list this evening took us back to Shawn’s very first studio album in 1989 “Steady On” and the hugely popular (with this audience) “Diamond in the Rough”. “Shotgun Down The Avalanche” (written with John Leventhal) was another song that this audience also recognised from the first few chords of the song,
Adding her own unique take to other people’s songs has always been part of Shawn Colvin’s music and a slowed down version of “I’ll Be Back” by the Beatles somehow gave this song an element of sadness that the up-tempo beat of the original lacked. If you are a songwriter/story teller like Shawn Colvin then sooner or later you always seem to get drawn to the words and music of Tom Waits, and “Hold On” was simply a very good example of a story and a song being passed from one person to another.
Perhaps the biggest applause for any song this evening though came for the very dark “Sunny Came Home” and Steve Earle was right when he told Shawn Colvin that this was a murder ballad. Murder Ballads have their own special place in traditional Scottish music, so very appropriate to hear this song performed live in Scotland.
Shawn Colvin’s gifts as a songwriter/story teller can easily over-shadow her skills as a guitarist, but here tonight, this solo set played on guitar (apart from a piano for encore songs) gave us all a chance to hear just how many different playing techniques are well used and performed in these songs.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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