Lyle Lovett & Shawn Colvin at the Paramount
Grammy Award winning singer-songwriters Lyle Lovett and Shawn Colvin brought their "Together On Stage'' tour to Huntington, Long Island on a cool Sunday evening in early March. The performance, sandwiched between two powerful and snowy and rainy Nor’easters, was both warm and cozy, bringing a smile to the face of even the most downtrodden attendee.
In the thirty-plus years since his debut in 1986, Lovett has taken his place as one of the most original and unique singer/songwriters of his or for that matter any generation. His music which is both joyous and sad features smart, insightful, witty, literate, sardonic and eclectic lyrics that covering a multitude of topics: love, loss, yearning, his home state of Texas and, of course, life and death. His songs are both traditional and visionary. While many categorize his music as fitting into the country genre, it is much more than that. It is impossible to place Lovett into just one genre. Though his music could be thought of as having a base in country, it fuses together elements of blues, folk, rock, pop, bluegrass, swing, jazz, gospel and alt-country and pop. By pushing and melding these genres, Lovett has created his own special version of Americana. Greatest Hits, his most recent album, was released on Curb Records in 2017.
Colvin has been a solo recording artist for just under 30 years and is best known for her 1997 Grammy-winning song, "Sunny Came Home." She won her first Gammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album with her debut album, Steady On (Columbia Records, 1989). In 2012, her memoir Diamond In The Rough was published by William Morrow. Over the course of her career, she has released eleven albums and has become one of the mainstays of the singer songwriter genre. In early 2018, Colvin released, The Starlighter, a collection of traditional and standard children’s lullabies, on Amazon Music.
An intimate, midsized venue, the Paramount, is more often than not configured with seating only in the mezzanine and balconies. On this evening no “standing-room” only tickets were sold. The entirety of the audience was seated. So, too, were the performers.
The show featured the duo seated together on stage in an intimate setting with just their acoustic guitars. Both singers were obviously in happy and jovial moods as their banter was filled with humor while they joked with each other and with audience members. Lovett and Colvin are true storytellers as evidenced by the tales they told detailing the genesis of their tunes. They kept the multi-generational crowd on the edge of their seats while delivering powerful versions of “Fill Me Up," "Cowboy” “She's Already Made Up Her Mind,” “If I Had A Boat,” “I've Been To Memphis” “Church,” “Trouble,” “Polaroids,” "Diamond In The Rough" and many others.
When the show came to it inevitable end, the audience members jumped to their feet, cheering loudly as they begged for more. Unfortunately, all things must end and due to the late hour, Lovett and Colvin could only take their bows, wave to the crowd and depart into the wings.
Photo Credit: Christine Connallon
