Songwriters Marc Cohn and Shawn Colvin share stages and songs.
Two of this generation’s favorite singer-songwriters, Marc Cohn and Shawn Colvin, come together onstage for a special evening at the Wachholz College Center in Kalispell on Sunday, April 2, and perform April 3 at the Newberry in Great Falls.
Cohn, who earned a Grammy Award for his soulful ballad “Walking in Memphis,” and Colvin, winner of the Grammy Award’s Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Sunny Came Home,” welcome fans into their decade’s long friendship for a night of songs and stories.
Colvin won her first Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album with her debut album, Steady On, and went on to triumph at the 1998 Grammy Awards, winning both Record and Song of the Year for “Sunny Came Home.”
She has been a mainstay of the singer-songwriter genre ever since, releasing 13 superlative albums and establishing herself as one of America’s most revered live performers. Her songs are slow-release works of craft and catharsis that become treasured, lifetime companions for their listeners.
Colvin was recognized for her career accomplishments with the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Trailblazer Award by the Americana Music Association. Presenting the award was Bonnie Raitt, who described Colvin as “simply one of the best singers I’ve ever heard – and a truly gifted and deep songwriter and guitarist.”
Colvin was recently inducted into the 2019 Austin City Limits Hall of Fame alongside legendary artists Lyle Lovett and Buddy Guy. In a moving induction speech, Jackson Browne extolled, “Not many writers are able to do what Shawn does. It’s a very special way of relating what really matters. It takes an original to get our attention. Shawn is utterly original in her singing, and original in what she speaks about in her songs.”
After winning a Grammy for “Walking in Memphis,” Cohn solidified his place as one of this generation’s most compelling singer-songwriters, combining the precision of a brilliant tunesmith with the passion of a great soul artist. Rooted in the rich ground of American rhythm and blues, soul and gospel, and possessed of a deft storyteller’s pen, he weaves vivid, detailed, often drawn-from-life tales that evoke some of our most universal human feelings: love, hope, faith, joy and heartbreak.
Kalispell: 7 p.m. April 2 at the Wachholz College Center on the campus of Flathead Valley Community College; for tickets, head to wachholzcollegecenter.org or call 406-756-1400.
Great Falls: 7:30 p.m. April 3 at The Newberry; tickets are available online.