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Shawn Colvin’s latest recording, Uncovered comes as a surprise, and after allowing the songs to seep through my mind and soul a most welcome and truly wonderful experience. Colvin’s deft and deliberate style and interpretation of songs by others (Bruce Springsteen to Robbie Robertson by way of Paul Simon and the likes of John Fogarty) are in the main, sombre melancholy occasions. But non the worse for this as she shows a vulnerability; barriers are removed as Colvin wraps herself in the material, and ignites a special (exquisite) feel to Kathleen Brenan – Tom Waits “Hold On”. Uncovered is one of those albums I imagine some people will play it to death, and with her beautiful voice and the exquisite arrangements she has turned me onto some songs I would rarely have given another listen.
In many ways Colvin shares more about herself on a record like this, than if it were a record of her own work of her observations of her life in the songs chosen. Strange, but true as she loses herself in the lyrics and mood evoked. Uncovered isn’t a snap your fingers, tap your feet kind of record but one to listen carefully too and absorb. A beautiful partner to her other collection of other acts’ work, Cover Girl (1994); a lot of water has past since then, and even more since Colvin first caught the attention of people in 1992 with her album Fat City and the songs ‘Round Of The Blues” and “I Don’t Know Why” plus a selection of albums, and her memoir Diamond In The Rough (2013). The last time I saw her perform she shared a show with Mary Chapin Carpenter; maybe we will see something by them on record before too long, how about them calling on Rosanne Cash too!
Uncovered wasn’t Colvin going out to pick a few songs she liked that she could breeze through, but something where she could perfect her craft and implant her own style. “The songs on Cover Girl were staples of my live act at the time. Some of the songs on Uncovered I knew how to play, others I learned for the purpose of recording the album. Until you learn a song, you don’t know if you can bring anything to it. I get the idea in my head to learn a song because I love it. Then I go through a time when I’m afraid to learn it because I don’t want to screw it up. In the end I wind up finding out fairly quickly it it’s going to work for me”. Among the classics she rekindles you have soul act Brenton Wood’s hit “Gimme A Little Sign” that comes complete with pedal steel (and as anticipated lots of fine harmony vocals), John Fogarty’s time-less “Lodi” and two unexpected, as if I expected the others you have Robert Earl Keen’s “Not A Drop Of Rain” and one of Tammy Wynette’s finest and most poignant hits, ’Til I Get It Right”. Colvin is no Tammy but she still does a fine job of this beautiful song. It is one of those songs she could have done in a number of ways and got away with it. Others of note include Robbie Robertson’s “Acadian Driftwood” her measured take of the above noted “Lodi” and “Private Universe” (Neil Finn) as she reveals vulnerability, and a gritty determination to perfect her own imprint on whatever she records.
On the musician front Stuart Smith co-produces with Stuart Lerman and plays guitars, keyboards an on Paul Simon’s “American Tune”, bass; Glenn Fukunaga (electric, upright bass), Mike Meadows (percussion), David Boyle (keyboards), Mike Deering (pedal, lap steel guitar, mandola) with vocals from David Crosby (“Baker’s Street”) and Marc Cohn.
Maurice Hope