Colvin Rediscovers Roots

Sometimes it’s better to wait for success.

Just ask Shawn Colvin.

The 40-year-old pop-folk songstress whose tune “Sunny Came Home” scrapped its way to the top of the charts has certainly done her fair share of waiting.

Although maybe waiting isn’t quite the right word.

While it’s taken lady fame a good bit of time to find her way to Colvin’s doorstep, in the meantime the singer has hardly been sitting on her duff.

“I went about as far around as you can go to get to the middle,” Colvin said during a recent telephone interview after a show in Detroit. “I played solo, I played in bands. I played in a country band, I played in a rock ‘n’ roll band, I played in a bluegrass band. Then I played solo again. I moved to California, I moved to Texas, I moved to New York.

“It took me a long time to figure it out.”

The it that Colvin speaks of is her voice - her voice in a broader sense, as a singer, a songwriter and a performer.

“It was not easily come by for me,” she says. “I was a good chameleon all my life and I think that gave me a lot of education but it took a lot of time for me to find my own way.

“The interesting thing about it is that it was right in front of my face.”

Raised by musical parents, Colvin grew up in South Dakota, Ontario and Illinois. She began playing the guitar at age 10.

But it was her family and their weekly attendance at church that prompted her to begin singing at an even younger age.

“A lot of the musical things I did when I was very young revolved around the church,” Colvin says, explaining that she joined the junior choir at the church where her best friend’s dad was the organist. And “Without wanting to be blithe about it, you know, I think I was just born with a gift. My mom could sing and my dad could sing. We all just dug singing.”

Over time, Colvin would dabble in various musical genres, until eventually rediscovering her roots.

“What did I really cut my teeth on? It was the confessional singer/ songwriter type of folks of the late ‘60s early ‘70s - Joni Mitchell, James Taylor,” she says. “Personal stuff, music that sort of rides the fence between folk, pop, maybe a little bit of R&B. Rootsy type of stuff.”

Colvin sang backup for Suzanne Vega before releasing her debut album, “Steady On,” in 1989 to a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Recording.

Although Colvin continued to put out praiseworthy albums - “Fat City” in 1992 and “Cover Girl” in 1994 - she remained relatively inconspicuous. Meanwhile younger singer/songwriters in the same sincere vein - Alanis Morissette and Jewel among them - managed to garner more attention for work that many music pundits considered less worthy.

It is Colvin’s latest album, 1996’s “A Few Small Repairs,” that finally launched her to the surface of America’s consciousness where she belongs.

The album, her first to reach gold status, finds Colvin’s silken vocals and graceful melodies coating a disillusioned edge that often characterizes her material.

“Sunny Came Home” is a tune about a woman who comes home to “make a few small repairs” and does so by packing up the kids and burning down the house. This week it landed at No. 11 on Billboard magazine’s top 100 singles chart while the video hangs at the top of VH1’s weekly countdown.

Earlier this year “A Few Small Repairs” was Grammy nominated for Best Pop Album while Colvin was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Colvin seems comfortable with the long, winding road that has finally delivered her to rising-star status.

“One obviously doesn’t have the luxury of choosing,” Colvin says. “But if I have to make a judgment about what this would have been like for me 20 years ago, you know, I think I might have been a little overwhelmed.

“I enjoy my job and it’s just gotten a little better and a little better and a little better with each passing project. So this is just fun, it really is.”

Duncan Sheik opens for Shawn Colvin Wednesday concert.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT Shawn Colvin performs Wednesday, at 8 p.m. at the Opera House. Tickets: $22.50, available at G&B Select-A-Seat outlets, 325-SEAT or (800) 325-SEAT.