Popscholar

Shawn Colvin was in rare form Sunday night at the Keswick; I'm still reeling from the euphoria-induced spell she cast.  On the road with Brandi Carlile in support of her latest record These Four Walls, she was back at one of her favorite Philly-area haunts.  Wowed by her Falcon Ridge performance last summer (which was the first time since I’d seen her since I was in high school), I vowed to get back on the bandwagon.  And, after Sunday’s performance, I have officially climbed back on.

Brandi Carlile opened the show; she took the stage in jeans, converse sneakers and a red button-down.  Her casual style echoed her low-key, unpretentious demeanor.  She playfully chatted with us about everything from calling Shawn on her cell and asking to get on the tour to “ripping off” the “Ghost” riff from Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls.  But, for all of the lightness of her banter, her performance was nothing less than wholly intense.  She played mostly songs from her debut album, along with a couple of new tunes and two covers -- Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” and Leonard Cohen’s “Halleluiah.”  The standing ovation she received was entirely deserved.

Shawn took the stage just as the intermission music (Patty Griffin) faded out.

“I don’t want to follow Patty Griffin,” she joked.  “It makes me feel like a bad singer!”

Granted Patty is a tough act to follow, but Shawn more than held her own.  Dressed uniquely (as she always is) in some sort of black getup that defies description, she came out solo and treated us to a couple of acoustic tunes.  Shortly thereafter she introduced her “band,” which consisted of the legendary Buddy Miller and another player who looked like Michaela Majoun (for non-Philly natives, picture a woman whose black, bushy hair is her most overwhelming feature).

Musically Shawn and her crew sounded stellar.  They played a lot off of the new record and a smattering of songs from each of the older albums.  They also did a version of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” a cover with a definite “hip factor.”  Highlights included classics like “Round of Blues,” a duet with Brandi Carlile (after which Shawn touchingly hugged Brandi), and the beautiful closer, “Diamond in the Rough.”

Shawn herself was glowing; it was a thrill to see her so genuinely happy after what, I know, has been a longtime struggle with depression.  Her stage banter was witty and hilarious; at the beginning of the show she told us that, because she’s been in therapy forever, that it was a force of habit to talk heavily for the first fifty minutes of the set.

“After the therapeutic hour is over I tend to quiet right down,” she joked.

Later on, when she kept right on talking, she confessed to having a “doorknob issue,” which, she told us, is when the client starts chatting away at the very end of the therapy hour.  

The funniest moment of the night was when Shawn announced that she’d just seen Borat (which, coincidentally, G and I saw Saturday night) and that she now had an idea for an outfit for Buddy for the final gig of the tour.

“You know that fluorescent green banana sling that Borat wears?” she asked.  

I was sitting in the 4th row, dead center, and, as possibly the youngest person in the room, I began laughing hysterically because I knew exactly where she was going (I’m not sure that a lot of the 50+ crowd was privy to the Borat phenomenon.  Incidentally, you’ve got to love the fact that Shawn has a sense of humor that allows for such raunchiness.).

“I think we should get one of those for Bud,” she continued.

Poor Buddy Miller had not a clue.

“I’m in the process of educating Bud -- we’re watching a lot of Ali G on the bus,” she told us.

As if the music alone weren’t enough to win me over, you’ve gotta love a girl who actually owns Da Ali G Show on DVD.