From Amazon.com
Couldn't believe it was still available
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: Bought this album maybe in 1990 when it 1st came out loved it but it was really scratched up I was delighted that Amazon still had it available. Great compilation of Shawn Colvins early songs.
What an incredible piece of art!
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: I bought this when it was released. Everytime I listen to it, the phrase "a piece of art" comes to my mind. Truly a work of art, this is as near perfection as a grouping of songs can be. These songs bring tears to my eyes and overwhelm me with realizaton that a human being can contribute so much to the world in the form of music. For the life of me, I don't know why more people can't understand the incredible beauty in this music.
STILL HER BEST WORK....
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: Althgh I have nearly all of Shawn Colvin's albums & have seen her live twice, this album remains her best work to date. I am a great fan of her sound, music, lyrics - but somehow this album is most identifiable from the first cord. Ms. Colvin is a remarkable artist, poet. There are few artists like her and/or could be compared to her : Jann Arden comes to mind @ the moment. If anyone is curious about Shawn Colvin's music - I HIGHLY recommend this album to be where you shld begin your collection.
Wearing well with time
Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: My first exposure to Colvin didn't come on this album or even with her pop hit "Sunny Came Home" (from A FEW SMALL REPAIRS). It was in a non-hit duet with Bruce Hornsby on "Lost Soul" (from his A NIGHT ON THE TOWN disc). The voice was clearly special and I checked our local library to see if they had anything by her. I fell in love with the disc and later added it to my own collection. Now, 16 years later I'm reassessing its merits.
HIGHLIGHTS:
The title track is Colvin's defiant yawp after another relationship implosion (the "the nuclear winter of another love affair" as Colvin refers to it.) "Diamond in the Rough" takes a childhood fantasy of ordinary rocks as priceless gems to become a metaphor for lost innocence. ("But in a little while I got steeped in authority/Heaven only knows what went wrong/There is nothing so cruel than to bury that jewel.."). Fellow folkies Suzanne Vega and Lucy Kaplansky join Colvin on backing vocals. If "Steady" is Colvin's ode to romantic persistence, "Shotgun down the Avalanche" is Colvin aching for what was lost. ("After countless appeals/we keep spinning our wheels/On this mountain of new fallen snow/So I let go the catch and we are over the edge/You have left me nowhere to go..") A spectral backing vocal from co-producer John Leventhal is a nice sonic touch to the somewhat country-ish shuffle. "Another Long One" is the most musically adventurous, folding in a panoply of percussion (I think I hear Chinese cymbals, bongo and perhaps aluminum pie pan?), cello, fiddle, and an electric guitar that toys with effects that stretch its tone so much in a couple occasions it sounds like an old warped vinyl record. It also probably has one of the more "pop" sounding hooks, belying the singer's tortured insomnia as she thinks about the man she's lost and can't forget. ("It's just me and my well-intentioned spite/I said someone did this to me/But no one did, there's no injustices..") While I find the 2nd half of the disc to be weaker than the first, there's one last highwater mark in the tender "Something to Believe In". The song is the antidote to the despair in so many of the other songs, hopeful without Pollyanna-isms. ("There will always be stars in the wind/Little lines on your face when you grin/When it looks like you've done it again/And you just don't know where to begin/There will always be something to believe in..."). Hornsby returns the favour here, guesting on piano, though the filigrees he adds here are somewhat more restrained than is typical on his own works.
LOWS:
While there's nothing truly substandard here, I find "Ricochet in Time" and "The Dead of the Night" to be the least involving tracks. They simply don't draw me in.
BOTTOM LINE:
Those who found Colvin on the strength of the effervescent "Sunny Came Home" and the poppier material on A FEW SMALL REPAIRS may be put off by the difference in sound here. It's definitely not an "immediate" listen. But if you spend some time with the CD, it will grow to become among your favourites. Recommended especially for pop fans who want more "adult" fare lyrically.
worth a listen
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: Thank goodness for brothers and sisters, otherwise I may have never discovered this cd.I heard the song "steady on " playing at my sisters house and borrowed the cd. I have since bought it and several other cds by Shawn Colvin but it is by far my favorite. I was happy to see Shawn have some comercial success with " A Few Small Repairs" But I would reccommend "Steady On " if you only buy one disc. Like one of the other people that reviewed this cd my tw favorite SC songs are "Diamond In The Rough" and "Shotgun Down The Avalanch" SDTA is a song that almost perfectly describes my feelings towards a dear friend. Its a song I wish I would have written, just like "solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel. Except I don't write songs. But really I think all the songs on Steady On are great. Its nice to think that Shawn Colvin is the type of artist that will be around awhile and another "Steady On" could be right around the corner. Its a cd you can buy right here on amazon for dirt cheap used. I am not endorsing Amazon I am endorsing Shawn Colvin. But what do I know?? By the way, I got to see Shawn in Atlanta in concert along with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Bruce Hornsby, What a great line up and show..........Good Day!!
Purchases
1 Steady On
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