Kim Ruehl: So, tell me about These Four Walls, and what that record is about for you.
Shawn Colvin:[laughs, long pause] Let's see. Um ...
Do you want to move on and come back to that question later?
Sure, yeah. let's come back to it.
Okay, here's another: Where did you record this one?
Oh, we did it in New York and some in Austin, my hometown.
Does where you record matter to you? Do you enjoy the recording process?
Yeah I do. I Like going to work, you know. Having sort of a normal life, normal work hours. Going to work and doing music and then coming home. I never recorded anywhere other than New York - well no, we recorded in LA once … but I love New York, you know, I lived there for 13 years. We would work there one week at a time and then I'd come home and do some work on my own in Austin.
This is the first record you did with Nonesuch Records. What prompted the switch [from Columbia]? Was your contract up?
No the contract didn't end; but our mutual interest in each other ended. [laughs]
That sounds like a very diplomatic way to put it.
[laughs] Yeah. I did ask to leave. Promoting that last record I did with them was so awful. It was flat out ugly. I don't think I've said that before, but it was. It got ugly.
You know I was checking out your forum online – it's almost as active as Janis Ian's – and in your latest entry you wrote, “When I tour my world gets even smaller.” Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Or it is what it is?
I think it's both – it's great until re-entry, you know, and you go back home to “real” life; and the details come at you that you've been able to not look at [when you were on the road]. It's not so much of a choice, but the world does get smaller on tour. I'm all about keeping things simple and focused, you know, being healthy, getting enough sleep, exercising.
Do you exercise on tour? What do you do [for exercise]?
I'll run or work out in the hotel gym. If I'm lucky, I can find a pool and do a swim workout.
Does your daughter travel with you?
She does in the summer. I haven't had to tour in the fall since she's reached school age, so this is different. But she'll come back out [on tour with me] for a week before Thanksgiving.
Are you traveling with a band now, or solo?
With a trio, actually. Deborah Dobkin on percussion and a guitar player – Buddy Miller.
Do you prefer that to playing solo?
I don't prefer it, but it's a really nice change from playing solo. I guess I like both. After playing solo for several years, it's nice to play with other people and to have that collaborative effort.
So, back to that first question: What is this album about for you?
Well, I don't really write an album about anything. It's more about the song by song [process]. I get out of that concept thing – it's not that sophisticated. I'm really writing songs by the skin of my teeth and just writing, thanking God that I'm still writing songs. But I think when you get them all down on a record, something emerges. It's not intentional, but if you're just writing your feelings rather than a story or a musical, then a meaning emerges. … I guess, when it's all said and done, I think [this album] is about getting old.
Well you've been at this for a while – this is your 17th record [I was incorrect. It's been 17 years since the release of her first album. These Four Walls is number nine]...
Really? Oh my God. Don't say that. Seventeen? I guess it has been that long … well, and I was making a living as a musician for ten years prior to that. More than ten, I guess. Since 1975.
So, well after 30 years, how do you feel about this music thing? Tired of it yet?
I was. I was tired. It had kind of played itself out and kind of ended with me leaving Columbia. That was really a low point. It's not just that they weren't interested anymore, but the business was changing and I wasn't sure where I fit in; but I found my way through that to a place that feels – what's the word – valid? That's not really the word, but ... I found a record company that suits me, that fits. I got a different manager, and it feels like a new beginning.
