Shawn Colvin is proof that female singer/songwriters can have their cake and eat it too. Colvin tops her folk ballads with a layer of pop-rock that has made for both critical acclaim and commercial success.

The Vermillion, SD native taught herself guitar at age 10 and was somewhat of a wanderer in her youth, traveling from London to Ontario before settling in Carbondale, IL, where she formed the hard-rocking Shawn Colvin Band. After too much screaming took a toll on her vocal chords, Colvin relocated to Austin, TX and sang with the Western swing band the Dixie Diesels until she was forced to rest her voice at just 24 years old. Colvin moved to New York City in 1983 and generated a following in New York and Boston through a softer singer/songwriter approach than before. Throughout the ‘80s Colvin appeared in off-Broadway productions of Dinettes, Diamond Studs, Lie of the Mind and Pump Boys (among others) while remaining of the folk music circuit.

In 1987 Shawn Colvin got her big break singing backup for Suzanne Vega on "Luka" and the following year she forged a songwriting partnership with John Leventhal by providing the lyrics to his melodies. Columbia Records got its hands on one of the live tapes Colvin was selling at her shows and signed the singer around the same time similar artists like the Indigo Girls and Tracy Chapman were performing. Her 1989 album Steady On won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Recording and its 1992 follow-up, Fat City (a more poppy album) earned her a Grammy nod for Best Contemporary Folk Recording and Best Female Pop Vocal for the single "I Don't Know Why." 1994's cover album Cover Girl was followed by 1996's A Few Small Repairs, which had a slow start but eventually was a major hit thanks to the popular single "Sunny Came Home" (which won the Song of the Year Grammy in 1998.) Colvin continued to release albums into the new millennium, most recently with 2006's These Four Walls.