Diamond in the Rough: A Memoir
by Shawn ColvinHarperCollins, 240 pp., $25.99
Shawn Colvin knows about starting fires. A fledgling pyromaniac, she stomped grass fires in her childhood and continued the emotional equivalent well into her adulthood, eventually extinguishing alcoholism and failed romantic trysts. She also kept the fire burning in her two-decade climb for mainstream success. In the local singer-songwriter’s new memoir, the “Sunny Came Home” singer takes the leap from lyricism to long-form narrative – writing with the same wit and journalistic truth that translate into her guitar-backed tell-alls. This time the confessionals pull double duty, as the memoir appears at the same time as her new album All Fall Down – the diary of a particularly troubling breakup. According to Diamond in the Rough, Colvin’s no stranger to heartache. She laces the largely tumultuous journey from smoky bars in Austin to the streets of New York with a survivor’s sense of humor, understanding the gravity of situations, but trying to make them accessible. With the frank additions of the names of her lovers, the memoir gives just the right amount of juicy details to the stories behind her most celebrated songs.
This article appears in June 15 • 2012.