SHAWN COLVIN at One World Theatre 2-19-10

She still reigns. When it comes to the whole singer/songwriter package, especially female, nobody is yet to come close. I know the past decade hasn't been very prolific for new music but it has yielded one really good record, "These Four Walls" from 2006. Regardless, her entire catalog still stands up as fresh as the individual albums did the day they came out. She is such a good acoustic guitar player and her show is always entertaining. Shawn has a natural story telling way on stage and even though we really didn't get stories we did get a lot of funny little one liners or blurbs about the songs themselves. Her show is always going to hold your attention.
On this night she was doing 2 shows. We were at the early show and it lasted about 1 1/2 hours. We had $30 tickets (+$12 for service charge-how do you spell ripoff?) that were side stage, 3rd row. This place is tiny, 300 seats and is built so that no matter where you are sitting, you are close to the stage. Awesome venue! And sound!
We got the standards, "Trouble" and "Shotgun Down The Avalanche." During "Trouble" she morphed into the song she stole from to write it, Crowded House's "Private Universe." We also got some gems, "Steady On" and "A Matter of Minutes." She was definitely in a "Fat City" mood as we got "Polaroids" (the long version where in the middle she goes into all of the songs, about 6 of them, stolen to write that song!), "Tennessee," "Round of Blues" and "I Don't Know Why." We got "Window to the World" and "This Must Be The Place" from "Cover Girl." Also in the set were "Witchita Skyline" and "Fill Me Up."
The other covers she did were a stunning "That's The Way Love Goes," a Lefty Frizzel song made popular by Merle Haggard, "Crazy," the Gnarls Barkley tune and Tom Waits's "Hold On." As anybody who has ever seen Shawn live, you know she does covers better than anybody in the world. Always makes them her own and they are always as good as the original, sometimes much better. "Crazy" is one of those songs that, like everybody else, I thought was catchy and fun. It wasn't until she did it that I really listened to the lyrics. It's a killer song, lyrically. Probably never would've realized that without her version. If you don't have it, go buy it at iTunes or wherever you buy your downloads.
So, suffice to say, a fantastic night all around. For living in Austin she doesn't play here too often. Wish she would come out of hiding a bit more frequently. Oh well, we'll always take her whenever we can.
No photos or video at this place.