Dimensions
147 x 216 x 22mm
I realized I was writing about getting sober, about coming alive, about claiming myself and uncovering these gifts that had been obscured by both outside and internal forces, about this veil of confusion and dysfunction and addiction being peeled away, bit by bit . . . Shawn Colvin, the singer/songwriter, had found her voice.
During much of 1997, the song that captured the public imagination - not to mention the top spots on pop charts and Grammy awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year - was not your typical pop song. It was a song about a woman undone, a would-be arsonist, and ultimately, a survivor, named "Sunny."
That song, "Sunny Came Home," launched singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin to stardom, after 20 years working in the music business. Like Sunny, Colvin knows a thing or two about surviving heartache - and setting fires - and now for the first time, she tells her story. It is the coming-of-age of a passionate young musician in the late '70s and '80s, making every mistake on the road out of small-town, prairie South Dakota; and it is also the maturation of a woman finding her voice, and learning to care for a child as well as herself.
After learning to play guitar at the age of 10, Shawn Colvin couldn't imagine doing anything with her life besides music; and this would decide everything, from her friends to her career to her lovers. In DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH, Colvin recounts the wild years during which she steadily built her career, cutting her teeth on bar sets in Austin and New York City and eventually gracing stages worldwide, including the Grammy Awards. With perspective and humor she describes driving cross-country on tour in vans full of boys, and falling in and out of love; making music of all genres with lifelong friends, and meeting heroes like Joni Mitchell; facing addiction and staying sober, weathering divorce and raising a daughter on her own -- and learning to channel it all into the culmination of her talent and experience, in songwriting.
With the rich lyricism, wit, frankness and deep empathy that have characterized Shawn's songs throughout her career and inspired audiences worldwide, she looks back over a rich lifetime of highs and lows with stunning insight and candor.
