IT is not unusual for an artist to hit career peak at 40. But in the Peter Pan world of popular music, it is downright weird. The dawn of the fifth decade is usually a time of greatest hits collections, a winding down and, occasionally, a straightening out.
Some years ago Shawn Colvin did the latter, a product of her self admitted addictive personality. But these days she is a singer songwriter very much on the case. Last November's A Few Small Repairs on Columbia Records was one of the standout albums of the year, a feisty, bruised, emotional folk rock roller coaster which finally realised the promise this shy woman had displayed through her previous three collections.
The difference was the lyrically rich songs, which ranged from the tough Get Out Of The House to the sensitive You And The Mona Lisa, and a liberated performance to match. Many speculated that the album's emotional intensity stemmed from her recent divorce.
"I think the disillusionment that came with the failure of my marriage is very much on the record," she told Mojo music magazine recently, "but it's a disillusionment that went across the board for me. It wasn't just my failure - I felt let down by the country, by societal values in general, by the O.J. thing. Plus I turned 40 and began to think about death a lot."
"I felt I'd crossed a line and was now in the second half of the book. So the death of the marriage came to symbolise a lot of things to me. I was 40 and I was gonna die and I didn't have any children yet - and I was funnelling all my self worth into what we call art, but which I had to play a corporate game in order to do. All of this just made me question a lot of things."
Out of this painful experience has come a memorable album of mature and honest reflection which handsomely repays listening. Tomorrow night in the Olympia theatre she will again step into the solo spotlight, armed with her voice and her guitar. The impact of the finely judged production may be absent, but I would wager a small sum this woman from South Dakota will make this a show to witness.