Sometimes there comes a time when a singer steps out of her performing zone in concert.
It happened to Shawn Colvin on Thursday night at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. She had just told a story about her friend Garry Shandling, who had invited her to appear on a TV show he was involved with, "The Larry Sanders Show." Without mentioning that comedian Shandling had died unexpectedly on Thursday, she dedicated a song to him, the one he'd asked her to perform the first time she guested on "Larry Sanders."
Working solo with her acoustic guitar, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter started to deliver a haunting "Polaroids." After she sang the line "He left without incident/ Vanished into thin air," she stepped back from the microphone. Clearly overcome with emotion, she had to collect herself, taking a noticeable pause as she strummed her guitar a little longer. Then she refocused and continued singing.
That moment spoke volumes about Colvin. She is so in touch with her emotions and not afraid to share them in song, performance or in conversation. And she does it in a way that is artful and not indulgent.
Moreover, she's so much in moment. She was spontaneous on Thursday, saying whatever popped into her mind and responding to shouts from fans, including accommodating a song request and denying another one by saying she didn't remember the song.
Colvin, 60, hit the stage making fun of a Minnesota accent, on the words "Minnesota" and "Dakota" – and then admitted that she's originally from South Dakota.
Her humor was evident throughout her 90-minute performance but so was her humanity. She explained why she doesn't use a high-tech tuner on the headstock of her guitar: Because her eyesight isn't good enough to see that far.
Colvin was chatty and a bit confessional. But she knew how to rein herself in. "I've been in therapy so long," she said, "about 45 minutes into this set, I'll wind down."
She did find time later in the set for a long-winded story about being summoned by Taylor Swift to the arena in Austin, Texas, where Colvin lives, The pop supernova wanted to sing Colvin's Grammy-winning "Sunny Came Home" together in concert. Colvin was amped because not only does she like Swift but her teenage daughter was a huge fan and got to come along. One other thing, the veteran folkie had to make her entrance on a hydraulic lift, which required her to squat down before emerging in the view of the public.
"Taylor wore black sequins with a red guitar in front of 18,000 people and I wore a brown dress with a brown guitar," Colvin said. "I'm just brown all over in."
Amid all the humor, there were many musical rewards during this splendid performance, including the aforementioned "Polaroids," "Sunny Came Home" and the encore numbers "Crazy," her ballad treatment of the Gnarls Barkley hit, and a new song from a forthcoming duet album with Steve Earle that's likely called "You're Still Gone." For a celebrated singer-songwriter who filled her entire set with poetic tales of heart break, this may be her best sad song yet.
Colvin will perform again at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Dakota. Opening will be Zachary Scot Johnson, a talkative St. Peter, Minn., singer-songwriter who posts a song per day on YouTube (more than 1,250 days and counting) and talks a lot about all the songs he records (135 Tom Waits tunes!) but seldom releases an album.
