The Vocal Luster Of Shawn Colvin

By THOMAS KINTNER
Special to The Courant
September 26, 2009

Shawn Colvin's hybrid of folk and pop gave birth to one of the most unlikely chart smashes ever in 1997, but she has spent most of her career in a more comfortable place, working slightly outside the mainstream with quirky, thoughtful charm. The 53-year-old played to her strengths Thursday night in an engaging solo performance at Infinity Music Hall in Norfolk, where she eased through a selection of tunes that brought out the luster in her singing.

Accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, Colvin began with a mellow rendering of the Simon and Garfunkel song "The Only Living Boy in New York." Drifting deftly from its girlish high end to breathy exhales, her voice gently stretched those lyrics and crisply fashioned words to match the pulsating lilt of "Fill me Up" while maintaining the song's relaxed vibe.

She played effectively with cadence, offering a restrained take on "Polaroids" that was poised and pretty, and keeping a delicate yet firm handle on the mesh of soft sounds and biting lyrics in "Summer Dress." Her singing shimmered and simmered as it ran the course of "Wichita Skyline."

Long a teller of amusing stories, Colvin is at work on a book of her favorite anecdotes, and as part of the show she read a passage from the manuscript that kept to her habit of wisecracking her way through a yarn. Her funny side was a balance to songs that ranged from the sharp-edged angst of "A Matter of Minutes" to the springy but dark "Sunny Came Home," her dreamy high tone wrapping the arson-themed signature hit that won Colvin a Song of the Year Grammy.

She forged riveting moments in slow packages, including the pointed, convincing "I Don't Know Why" and a steady closer of "Diamond in the Rough." She stuck with restraint in an encore of three well-chosen covers, the mild quiver in her voice coloring the Beatles' "I'll Be Back" and a reserved navigation of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." Her finale of "If These Walls Could Speak" was sweet and serene, made all the more poignant for the poise with which it was delivered.

Judith Owen opened the show with a lovely half hour of supple ballads. Performing by herself on a keyboard, the Welsh singer (who lives in the U.S. with husband Harry Shearer) applied a cool caress to each tune she touched, from a trickling, dramatic slowdown of "Smoke on the Water" to the almost icy confines of her own patient "Enough." Earnest but artful, she spun bits of soul in the refined "Emily," and offered a simple but moving family tribute in "My Father's Voice."

•Shawn Colvin's set list: "The Only Living Boy in New York," "Fill me Up," "Trouble," "These Four Walls," "Polaroids," "Shotgun Down the Avalanche," "Summer Dress," "Wichita Skyline," " Tennessee," "A Matter of Minutes," "I Don't Know Why," "Sunny Came Home," "Diamond in the Rough," (Encore) "I'll be Back," "Crazy," "If These Walls Could Speak."

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