1 Sunny Came Home
2 Get out of This House
3 The Facts About Jimmy
4 You and the Mona Lisa
5 Trouble
6 I Want It Back
7 If I Were Brave
8 Wichita Skyline
9 84,000 Different Delusions
10 Suicide Alley
11 New Thing Now
12 Nothin' on Me

From Amazon.com

Classic Shawn Colvin

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: I bought this c.d. in the nineties and loved it. I recently rediscovered it and love it all over again. She is a talented musician.

Fresh Sound

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: What a great CD. Such a fresh sound. Really sounds like she is having fun when she is singing. What a unique style. I will seek out other SC CD's after hearing this masterpiece.

If I Were Brave...

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: In the late 90's Shawn Colvin was one of many in the "angry female singer with guitar" genre. However she is one of the few to not only outlast but to PREDATE this trend. Shawn has been running her own show from the ground up for years and put out consistantly (albiet long-awaited) solid work throwing back memories of Carly Simon and Carol King in terms of emotional poingnancy and clarity. Her work is evocative in its lyrics and in its overall sound and feel.

A Few Small Repairs was the album that put Shawn Colvin on the mainstream map and it's not hard to see why: The album title is taken from the first song (and the biggest single) Sonny Came Home: A hard-edged, slightly-lilting guitar hook filled with urgency immediatly pulls one into the emotional trip this album takes. Shawn seems primarily concerned on this album with finding meaning in life and doing what it takes to be happy. This takes many forms: Sonny Came Home is clearly one woman's escape from an abusive spouse. Several other songs on the album point to this "broken relationship" theme.

This is all pretty standard fare but in my opinion the true emotional center of the album comes from "If I Were Brave." Colvin speaks an indesputible truth: She is trying to do the best that she can and try as she might...her song uses biting irony to show that sometimes you can't be more than you are by simply putting on a "brave" facade for the world and trying to live a life that is not true to your nature. This reviewer has seen clarity of prose and verse like this only amongst some of the finest songwriters of our time.

I like it but...

 Album Rating: (3 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: This is a good cd but this artist has so much more substance live. Her accompanying guitar player was very expressive. I saw them live on (I think) soundstage and she was really good. These songs took on a different light in a live context.

Folk-rock at its best

 Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: Having recently delved into the folk and folk-rock genres, I came upon Shawn Culvin. Had I known she was the singer-songwriter who sang "Sunny Came Home" I'd have probably gotten her CD a long time ago, since that song was hugely famous in my pre-teenage years. The aforementioned "Sunny" is brilliant in every sense, and definitely deserved its Grammy wins for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The rest of the album is surprisingly consistent; "Get Out Of This House" is darn near as listenable as "Sunny Came Home," but not quite. "The Facts About Jimmy" is brilliant as well. A Few Small Repairs is definitely a worthwhile addition to any serious music fan's collection.