If you have heard Shawn Colvin's Cover of "River" on her 1998
Christmas radio broadcast (also available on our Bob's Covers Volume
13) , you might recall that she she introduces the song by saying:
"I used to play this song a lot. A lot a lot a lot a lot a lot. But
its been awhile, since I had to quit playing this woman's songs in order
to learn to write some of my own." An interesting comment which
explains why even though its pretty apparent that Shawn lionizes Joni,
there are very few Joni tunes in her fairly large repertoire of cover
songs. (And how easy it is to get lost in the Power of Joan).
However, I recently got a hold of a recording of Shawn from a point when
she was still playing Joni. Its a very, very good quality recording of
a college radio broadcast from 1975/76 from Carbondale, Illinois, when
Shawn was all of 20 or 21 years old. There are three Joni covers on
it--"Urge for Going," and two takes of "Conversation." These have
already been entrusted to Covermaster Bob, and will appear on a future
covers volume down the road this summer, so if you are interested and
want to get hold of them that way, they are in the pipeline.
This recording has formerly been for sale on eBay (though supposedly
won't be any more) and a few tracks have shown up on Napster here and
there--so its out there, but still fairly rare, I think. If any of the
Shawn fans on the list are interested in getting a copy of the complete
recording on CD, I will save you the eBay gouge and the Napster ethical
dilemma by offering it to the list at large for blanks and postage or
cash for costs. If there is enough interest, a couple of kind jmdlers
have offered to help burn copies for a proper CD tree.
Here's what you'll get:
1. Suzanne
2. Daddy You've Been on My M ind
3. Urge for Going
4. Sailboat
5. Pack Up Your Sorrows
6. Can't Find My Way Home
7. Like He Said
8. Conversation (take 1)
9. Conversation (take 2)
10. Something Fine
11. Carolina in My Mind
12. Whenever (Acoustic take 1)
13. Whenever (acoustic take 2)
14. Whenever (with band)
15. Love Has No Pride (with band)
16. You Back to Me (with band)
17. Dance (a reggae number with band)
If you're a Shawn fan, its really worth getting--great sound, and an
amazing glimpse of the artist as a young woman. Her voice sounds rather
different -- a little deeper (she hadn't given up cigarettes yet)--
but you get many flashes of the Shawn to come, in the vocals and the
already accomplished guitar playing.
So, if you're interested, please reply to me privately, and we'll get
the ball rolling,
Catherine T., on the rainy banks of Forbes Creek
