A Few Small Repairs (CD)

Grammy-winner Shawn Colvin came up on the East Coast folk scene in the '80s, finally scoring a major label deal toward the end of that decade. Despite consistently strong work centered around her resilient voice and folk-rock songwriting, she didn't hit it big until her 1996 album A FEW SMALL REPAIRS, which put her on the pop map, though the singer-songwriter crowd had been cooing her praises for years.

• Category:  Music  »  Rock & Pop  »  Singer/Songwriter
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Columbia (USA)
• UPC: 886972443027
• WAPI (Tower ID): 111828441
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• Tower.com Sales Rank: #24724 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #8667 in Rock & Pop (See Top 100 Rock & Pop Bestsellers)
• #453 in Singer/Songwriter (See Top 100 Singer/Songwriter Bestsellers)

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Entertainment Weekly (10/25/96, pp.116-117) - "...Full of wisdom and ravishing melodies, REPAIRS is a tour de force that needs no fixing."
- Rating: A
Q (11/96, p.120) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Colvin confirms her position as a major vocalist wiht emotive phrasing and poignant lyrics....the album rolls out a series of personal parables that are at once chilling and insightful..."

Personnel: Shawn Colvin (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, hand claps, trash can); John Leventhal (vocals, pedal steel & electric guitars, guitar, mandolin, violin, harmonica, organ, keyboards, bass, percussion); Sandra Park, Carol Webb (violin); Robert Rinehart (viola); Eugene Moye (cello); Rick Depofi (piccolo, recorder, clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone); Chris Botti (trumpet); Tony Kadlek (flugelhorn); Bob Carlisle (French horn); Larry Farrell (trombone); Michael Rhodes, Mark Plati (bass); Shawn Pelton (drums, percussion); Danny Ferrington, Judith Owen, Lyle Lovett, Kate Markowitz (background vocals).

Engineers include: John Leventhal.

Recorded at Sear Sound, 12th Street Studio and Shelter Island Sound, New York, New York; Cedar Creek Recording, Austin, Texas; Sony Studios, Los Angeles, California.

"Get Out Of This House" was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

A FEW SMALL REPAIRS was nominated for a 1997 Grammy for Best Pop Album.

"Sunny Came Home" won the 1998 Grammy Awards for Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year, and was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

When folk-rock and adult contemporary pop merged in the early '90s to give birth to the adult album alternative radio format, scores of singer-songwriters took the opportunity to bland out for big bucks, shortchanging listeners in the process. Shawn Colvin has emerged as the savior of AAA, bringing classy arrangements and high-quality songwriting to the mix, and inspiring a legion of imitators along the way.

Colvin's voice is a supple, elastic thing, bending notes and phrases to suit the idiosyncratic elan that is her trademark. Her songs combine ingratiating pop sensibilities with incisive, often poetic lyrics. Together with producer/guitarist John Leventhal, Colvin has created a sonic landscape that seduces the listener with rich, atmospheric washes of guitar and unabashedly pretty horn and string arrangements, while never obscuring the simple melodic statements that are the foundation of the songs. A FEW SMALL REPAIRS is the ideal pop confection; light and sweet on the surface, with a thick, chewy center.

This 1996 release not only went platinum, it won two Grammy awards for singer/songwriter Shawn Colvin. Clearly her breakthrough album, A FEW SMALL REPAIRS combines folk with elegant pop and a healthy dose of Texas rock. The result is a unique alternative-country vibe that roots itself in rural America. However, this disc is also influenced by later Beatles albums, most notably ABBEY ROAD and LET IT BE.

Overall, A FEW SMALL REPAIRS is marked by probing lyrics, beautiful refrains, and deep-pocketed grooves. The record's hit, "Sunny Came Home," makes obtuse reference to women's autonomy and spiritual transcendence using fire as a metaphor for burning away the pain of the past. However, the most poignant track on this disc is "If I Were Brave," a song about relentless self-doubt. Colvin sings with unbridled venerability on this tune, and her folksy lyric recalls the confessional writing style of Don McLean. Other tracks such as "Get Out of This House" and "I Want It Back" are more guitar-driven and upbeat. These contrast with the darker, more brooding compositions written by Colvin, often with assistance from producer John Leventhal.

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