Shawn Colvin

I first saw singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin at the Lincoln Theatre in 2003, when she was swapping songs and stories with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Griffin, and Dar Williams. Since then, I’ve seen her a couple more times with Carpenter, and at the 2016 XPoNential Music Festival (with Steve Earle). While she attracted music-industry notice relatively early in her career – her debut album Steady On won a Grammy in 1991 for Best Contemporary Folk Album – she didn’t really come to the attention of the wider public until she hit the top 10 in 1997 with “Sunny Came Home”, which went on to win both Record of the Year and Song of the Year Grammys the following spring.  Her 15 minutes of national fame ended quickly, however, as that was her only song to hit the U.S. Hot 100.

 

While Colvin writes most of her own material, she’s also good at reinterpreting songs by others, as one of the titles below suggests.

 

Favorite songs:

The Facts About Jimmy

Whole New You

Every Little Thing (He) Does Is Magic

Shotgun Down The Avalanche

I Don't Know Why

Round Of Blues

Get Out Of This House

A Matter Of Minutes

Sunny Came Home

Polaroids

 

The Isley Brothers

Jason Ankeny summarizes the group nicely in his AllMusic.com write-up: “First formed in the early '50s, the Isley Brothers enjoyed one of the longest, most influential, and most diverse careers in the pantheon of popular music -- over the course of nearly a half-century of performing, the group's distinguished history spanned not only two generations of Isley siblings but also massive cultural shifts, which heralded their music's transformation from gritty R&B to Motown soul to blistering funk.”

 

A short history of the band in 8 songs:

Shout – a raw classic that sold a million copies, despite getting no higher than #47 on the Hot 100 and never reaching Billboard’s R&B chart at all. (Joey Dee took it to #6 in 1962 – go figure.)

This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You) – a Holland-Dozier-Holland song that ranks as one of their best (for both HDH and the Isleys)

It’s Your Thing – an appropriate title for this post-Motown hit on their own T-Neck label

That Lady – the one where Hendrix-influenced guitarist Ernie Isley really lets loose. (Hendrix himself toured and recorded with the group in 1964.)

Summer Breeze – the Isleys also had a way with covers. The 1992 edition of the Rolling Stone Album Guide [RSAG ‘92] noted that “resuscitating [this Seals & Crofts song] qualifies as a miracle.”

Fight The Power – similar sentiments as Public Enemy, but 14 years earlier

Harvest For The World

Dress me up for battle, when all I want is peace

Those of us who pay the price, come home with the least

And nation after nation, turning into beast

Oh, when will there be a harvest for the world?

Between The Sheets – one in a series of singles that RSAG ’92 characterizes as “love-me-all-over slow numbers”. Imagine Barry White doing ballads, and you get the picture.

 

Favorite Songs:

Harvest For The World

This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)

That Lady

For The Love Of You

Shout

 

Caravan Of Love (Isley, Jasper, Isley)

Livin' In The Life

Work To Do

Your Old Lady

Voyage To Atlantis

 

It’s Your Thing

If You Were There

Lay-Away

Fight The Power

I Guess I’ll Always Love You

 

Twist And Shout

Behind A Painted Smile

Summer Breeze

Footsteps In The Dark

Respectable

 

Jackson Browne

It’s an interesting situation for Jackson Browne compilations on Amazon as I write this; you can get a 15-track CD for $16.99, or a two-disc set for $17.29 with 32 tracks. The first one isn’t bad, but as you might expect, the latter is a much better value. (I happen to own both, since the single CD came out 7 years earlier.) For some reason, “That Girl Could Sing,” a single that reached #22 on the Hot 100 in 1980, appears on neither one.

 

Browne’s put out enough quality stuff over his lengthy career that I certainly could have made this a longer list. I somewhat reluctantly omitted his version of “Take It Easy,” since I think the Eagles did it better.

 

Favorite songs:

Fountain Of Sorrow

The Load-Out / Stay (recorded live at Merriweather Post Pavilion)

Doctor My Eyes

That Girl Could Sing

In The Shape Of A Heart

 

Rock Me On The Water

The Barricades Of Heaven

Running On Empty

Jamaica Say You Will

For A Dancer

 

Somebody's Baby

Sky Blue And Black

The Pretender

The Night Inside Me

Lives In The Balance

 

Bonus holiday track: The Rebel Jesus