Shawna Lee "Shawn" Colvin (born January 10, 1956) is an American singer and songwriter. She began her career performing in several folk and rock bands throughout the 1970s and 1980s before touring with Suzanne Vega in 1988, which landed her a recording contract with Columbia Records. Her debut studio album Steady On (1989) received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Her subsequent albums Fat City (1992) and Cover Girl (1994) saw moderate commercial success before Colvin's fourth studio album A Few Small Repairs (1996) saw the large success of the single "Sunny Came Home", which received the Grammy Award for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Colvin's career also gained a following in the 1990s after she performed during all three original iterations of the Lilith Fair music festival. Following the release of her fifth studio album Whole New You (2001), Colvin signed with Nonesuch Records for her next two studio albums These Four Walls (2006) and All Fall Down (2012), both of which saw continued moderate success. Her most recent studio releases include Uncovered (2015) and The Starlighter (2018). William Morrow published Colvin's memoir Diamond in the Rough in 2012 to a positive reception.
Early life
Colvin was born Shawna Lee Colvin in Vermillion, South Dakota, and spent her youth in Carbondale, Illinois, and London, Ontario, Canada. She learned to play guitar at the age of 10
Career
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. 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", before straining her vocal cords and taking a sabbatical at the age of 24.
Colvin relocated to New York City, joining the Buddy Miller Band in 1980
While participating in off-Broadway shows such as Pump Boys and Dinettes, 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.
thumb|Colvin in 1995
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. The song won the 1998 Grammy Awards for both Song and Record of the Year. and in 2001 released another album called Whole New You. In 2004, she released a compilation of past songs called, Polaroids: A Greatest Hits Collection. In 2009 she released Live, which was recorded at the jazz club Yoshi's in Oakland, California.
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. In 2016, she recorded an album with Steve Earle called Colvin and Earle. A Few Small Repairs was reissued in 2017, including its first pressing on vinyl, for its 20th anniversary.
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". and lent her vocals to Mary Chapin Carpenter's 1992 recordings "The Hard Way" and "Come On Come On".
Acting
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., The L Word and Baywatch.
Personal life
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.
Colvin has taken part in several triathlons.
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.
Awards and recognition
Grammy Awards
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Album/Track
! Category
! Result
|-
| 1991
| Steady On
| Best Contemporary Folk Album
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1994
| "I Don't Know Why"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| Fat City
| rowspan="2"|Best Contemporary Folk Album
|
|-
| 1995
| Cover Girl
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1997
| A Few Small Repairs
| Best Pop Vocal Album
|
|-
| "Get Out of This House"
| rowspan="2"|Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1998
| rowspan="3" | "Sunny Came Home"
|
|-
| Record of the Year
|
|-
| Song of the Year
|
|-
| 2009
| Shawn Colvin Live
| Best Contemporary Folk Album
|
|}
Other awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Category !! Work !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1997
| Billboard Music Video Awards
| FAN.tastic Video
| rowspan="5"|"Sunny Came Home"
|
|-
| Billboard Music Awards
| Top Adult Top 40 Track
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1998
| APRA Music Awards
| Most Performed Foreign Work
|
|-
| MVPA Awards
| Best Adult Contemporary Video
|
|-
| 1999
| ASCAP Pop Music Awards
| Most Performed Song
|
|-
| 2001
| Video Premiere Awards
| Best Original Song
| "Great Big World"
|
|-
| 2016
| Americana Music Honors & Awards
| Americana Trailblazer Award
| Herself
|
Discography
Albums
- Steady On (1989)
- 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)
- Steady On: 30th Anniversary Acoustic Edition (2019)
Live albums
- Live '88 (1995)
- Live (2009)
- Live from These Four Walls: My Favorite Movie Songs (2021)
- Lockdown: Live from Arlyn Studios (2021)
DVDs
- Music in High Places – Live in Bora Bora (2002)
- Polaroids: A Video Collection (2004)