Singer, Songwriter, Storyteller Shawn Colvin Comes to the Santa Barbara Lobero

Known for her luminous voice, engaging storytelling, and emotionally rich songwriting, three time Grammy Award winner Shawn Colvin returns to the Lobero for an intimate evening on Sunday, August 9. 

We spoke on the phone last week about her songwriting, her long career that includes 13 acclaimed albums and countless performances around the world, and her long view of life in the music industry. Here are but a few of the highlights from that conversation.

The last time we saw you in town was at the Lobero, at a tribute to David Crosby shortly after his death. That was a lovely show.

Very special. I love the Lobero.

Looking back at some of your career, you’ve pretty much been a working artist your whole adult life. When you were just starting out, did you think that you would be performing your whole life? Is that your vision of where you’d be?

I kind of thought that from the time I was ten years old.

So you always liked to sing, always liked to perform in front of people?

Yeah, I did. When I was 10, my father taught me to play guitar. But I was in the church choir before then, the junior choir at church in South Dakota, and my best friend and I would get together and sing all the time, and pretend we were the Beatles and listen to Beatles records.  That was a long, long time ago (laughs).

Is it easier or harder to get up on stage now than it was when you were in your 20s or your 30s?

About the same. I mean, the traveling — it’s like Rodney Crowell says, they don’t pay us to play; they pay us to travel. So the traveling, you know, the hours I keep and whatnot, I suppose as I’m getting older, that I don’t have as much energy, but the shows themselves I always rally. It’s no big deal.

In terms of the music industry at large, do you feel like things have changed? Do you feel like it’s easier to be a woman touring than it was to say in the 70s?

As far as being a touring musician goes, it’s always been great. Now, doing press and things like that,  I think it’s easier now. You know, in the time of Lilith Fair, there was this big to-do about playing two women in a row on the radio. You know, like you just didn’t do that. When female artists were really starting to kind of become in vogue, you know, and singer-songwriters especially, and so there was that. Obviously we don’t have that anymore. So yeah, I’d say it’s probably a little easier in the grand scheme of things. But yeah, I think it’s come a ways. I mean, not that there isn’t sexism ridiculousness, but it’s better than it used to be.

You have a lot of admirers, young women like Sarah Jarosz and Taylor Swift, who are your fans, and then all of us who discovered you, I kind of discovered you at Lilith Fair. How does it feel to sort of have cast such a wide spell?

What could be better? You know, if I’ve influenced anyone, actually, it’s quite a position to be in. I mean, people who influenced me, obviously made me who I am. There’s several of them, but for me to have informed the artistry of anyone, it’s really a high, high, high compliment.

Absolutely. In terms of the people that have influenced you, you’re known for kind of doing a nice mix of covers and then your own original material. What’s the difference between performing a song that you wrote versus interpreting a song that somebody else wrote?

That’s quite different because something that I wrote is obviously going to be a little more personal to me, whereas when I cover something, I’m interpreting somebody else’s vision, a personal take. Although obviously it’s relatable to me, or I wouldn’t do it. But the covers are really fun for me because I try not to cover songs exactly as they’ve been originally performed, so that to me is the challenge and what makes it fun and satisfying to a certain extent. 

… It’s definitely evolved. When I first started playing, gosh, before I was even 18 and playing in bars, I would just jam with my friends, and really we wanted to imitate. We wanted to learn it like it had been done. That’s how we educated ourselves. We got better and learned anything from different tunings to obviously just any number of different styles, so we copied. … That’s part of getting good, I think. And then you eventually can evolve and use what you’ve learned to maybe become more unique. Take a little bit here and a little bit there, and but the covers that I do when I do a cover now, I’m not as interested in just imitating it. I want it to be a little different.

What inspires you to write these days?

I’m more apt to write — there’s not as much drama in my life, let’s put it that way. In terms of romance or existential stuff, or you know, a lot of things were informed by relationships. A lot of songs, but more now it’s like wordplay. It really fascinates me if I have a word I want to use or a phrase I want to use and build around that. Making something fit to a piece of music that I love. I love writing lyrics to someone else’s music too. I’ve been doing that lately with a writer here in Austin, and I’ve gone kind of down this rabbit hole of writing songs specifically about a trip that I took about five years ago to my old hometown (South Dakota), and it was a really revelatory trip. It affected me a lot.  … We find inspiration in our lives that carries through the things we become passionate about.