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On Saturday night, the 61-year-old singer-songwriter pulls into Lebanon Opera House with a full complement of musicians, with whom she’s entering the homestretch of the 20th anniversary tour for her career-defining album A Few Small Repairs.
“I don’t think I’ve done a proper tour with a full band since the record originally came out,” Colvin said last week, during a telephone interview before an appearance in Boston. “I don’t know if I prefer playing solo, exactly. It’s certainly more efficient. And it’s something I do really well. It’s lower overhead. In general, I do fine by myself. I enjoy having an intimate relationship with the audience.
“On the other hand, it didn’t make sense to celebrate this album and play it from beginning to end every night without a band. I wanted to recreate the record. I’m very excited by the idea.”
“This” album and its signature song of alienation and revenge, Sunny Came Home, generated enough excitement and radio air play in 1997 to earn Colvin two Grammy Awards. She’d already earned a strong following in the folk and Americana community with her 1989 album Steady On, which won the Grammy for best contemporary folk album.
Two years later came Fat City, which received still more nominations. In addition to industry kudos, she reaped the rewards of respect from her peers, with covers by established performers — notably John Gorka and Maura O’Connell with Shotgun Down the Avalanche and Allison Krauss with I Don’t Know Why.
“I appreciate all of them,” Colvin said. “It’s such a compliment for someone to be attracted enough and moved enough to want to interpret it. I don’t know if I have a favorite cover, but the way Allison made I Don’t Know Why into uptempo bluegrass was pretty impressive.”
In most of her songs, she said, she adopts an outlook that rarely makes reference to current events and the wider world.
“I suppose I could take on things like social media,” Colvin said. “I find it useful in my job to promote things, to connect with fans. With my (19-year-old) daughter, though, it’s a lifestyle. It’s pretty pervasive, and I have a problem with it. When I was 19, we entertained ourselves in a vastly different way. But other than one reference to email, there are no tweeting or Instagram. Overall, my music is still more about interior things.”
Among the exceptions on the current tour, Colvin and her band started playing Tom Petty’s Wildflowers after the rocker died of cardiac arrest in October, following his own tour with The Heartbreakers.
“It was a conscious choice,” Colvin said. “I think it was for everybody who loved what he did. It’s certainly an indicator that we’re not getting any younger.
“It’s a message to all of us how fleeting life is.”
Singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin leads her band into Lebanon Opera House on Saturday night at 7:30. To reserve tickets ($47.50 to $62.50) and learn more, call 603-448-0400 or visit lebanonoperahouse.org or drop in at the box office in City Hall. Proceeds benefit the Rusty Berrings Skatepark in West Lebanon.
Best Bets
Decisions, decisions: Fans of gospel music will need the wisdom of Solomon to choose between Saturday night performances.
In Randolph, the Howard University Gospel Choir sings at the Chandler Music Hall at 7. Admission is $30 in advance and $32 at the door. To reserve tickets and learn more, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464. Before the show, members of the choir will lead a workshop for central Vermont gospel singers at 2 p.m. To attend the workshop, to which participation is limited to 30 vocalists, singers must buy a half-price ticket to the concert.
In Hanover, the Dartmouth College Gospel Choir performs works of relatively uncelebrated woman artists in soul, rhythm-and-blues and gospel music, as well as songs from the soundtrack that Pharrell Williams, Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch composed for the Oscar-nominated movie Hidden Figures, on Saturday night at 8. For tickets ($10 to $15) and more information visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
Violinist Roseminna Watson, a former Etna resident, and Lebanon pianist Elizabeth Borowsky collaborate this weekend on two performances of works of Prokofiev, Debussy and Brahms, and of their own compositions. The recitals are scheduled for Saturday night at 7:30 at the First Congregational Church in Lebanon (admission $5 to $20) and on Sunday afternoon at 3, at a private home in Hanover. To reserve tickets ($25 to $35) for the house concert, where seating is limited, visit paypal.me/PianoProdigies.
Nearly two dozen students from Lebanon, Stevens and Woodstock Union high schools join the Handel Society of Dartmouth College on Tuesday night at 7 in Spaulding Auditorium, to perform Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna and Robert Levin’s version of the Requiem that Mozart left unfinished when he died in 1791. For tickets ($10 to $20) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
Looking Ahead
Violinist Johnny Gandelsman will perform Bach sonatas and partitas in a solo recital at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon at 7 p.m. on Nov. 17. To reserve tickets ($30 general admission) and learn more, visit lebanonoperahouse.org or call 603-448-0400.
On Nov. 18, Gandelsman, who alternates solo tours with performances and recording sessions with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and the string quartet Brooklyn Rider, returns to downtown Lebanon to teach a master class to violinists at the Upper Valley Music Center from 10 to 11:30 a.m. He’ll follow that session by talking about his interpretation of the Bach works; the music center suggests a donation of $10 to attend the Saturday appearance.
Students from the Raqs Salaam Dance Theater program will perform moves from the Middle East and southern Asia, on the theme of “East of Egypt,” on Nov. 18 at the Lebanon Opera House. Christopher Louras, former mayor of Rutland, Vt., will talk during the performance about his efforts to resettle refugees of the Syrian civil war in that city. For tickets ($25 to $30) and more information, visit lebanonoperahouse.org or call 603-448-0400.
Theater/Performance Art
The Dartmouth Theater Department wraps its production of Cabaret this weekend, with performances at the Hopkins Center’s Moore Theater in Hanover at 8 tonight, Friday night and Saturday night and on Sunday afternoon at 2. To reserve tickets ($10 to $15) and learn more, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
The Theater Department also stages three performances of the Greek tragedy Medea in the Warner Bentley Theater this weekend, starting Friday night at 8. Subsequent shows are scheduled for 8 on Saturday night and 2 on Sunday afternoon. For tickets ($4) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
Northern Stage kicks off a two-month run of The Little Mermaid with previews on Wednesday night, next Thursday night and the night of Nov. 17 at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. Opening night is Nov. 18 for this musical adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, featuring songs and characters from the Disney movie version of the story. The production closes on Jan. 7. For tickets ($13.75 to $57.75) and more information, visit northernstage.org or call 802-296-7000.
Music
The southeastern Vermont-based Hungrytown duo of Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson perform roots music at Damon Hall in Hartland tonight at 6:30. Admission is free. To learn more about the ensemble, including other area concert dates, visit hungrytown.net.
The Camerata New England quartet of violinist Omar Chen Guey, violist Andrew Eng, cellist Linda Galvan and pianist Evelyn Zuckerman plays works of Bach, Mahler and Dvorak on Sunday afternoon at 2 at the Seven Stars Arts Center in Sharon. To reserve tickets ($15 for members of the center, $20 for others) and learn more, visit sevenstarsarts.org.
On the theme of “Autumn Leaves,” faculty musicians from the Upper Valley Music Center perform works of Poulenc, Bernstein, Borodin and other composers, on Sunday afternoon at 4 at the school’s new headquarters at 8 South Park St. in downtown Lebanon. The ensemble includes mezzo-soprano Carol Hansen, cellist Benjamin Culp and guest pianist Joseph Henderson. For tickets ($15) and more information, visit uvmusic.org or call 603-448-1642.
Dance
Fiddler Liz Faiella and guitarist Dan Faiella set the rhythm and Don Heinold calls the steps for Muskeg Music’s next contradance, on Saturday night at 8 at Norwich’s Tracy Hall. There will be a run-through for new and rusty dancers at 7:45. All dancers should bring a pair of clean shoes, as well as finger-food snacks for the pot-luck break Admission is $6 to $10.
Bar and Club Circuit
Mandolin master Matt Flinner leads his trio into The Skinny Pancake in Hanover tonight at 8; tickets cost $10 in advance and $12 at the door. And on Friday night at 8, the California-based Oddjob Ensemble comes calling with a repertoire of jazz, folk, show tunes and Vaudeville numbers.
Singer-songwriter Ari Heist performs at the Flying Goose Brewpub and Grille in New London tonight at 8. To reserve seats ($25) and learn more, visit flyinggoose.com or call 603-526-6899.
The Second Wind duo of singer Suzi Hastings and singer-guitarist Terry Ray Gould performs in the tavern at Jesse’s restaurant in Hanover on Friday night at 5, and at Big Fatty’s BBQ in White River Junction on Saturday night at 6.
Soulfix plays dance music at the Farmer’s Table in Grantham on Friday night starting at 7, and at the Sunapee Cove Retirement and Assisted Living Facility on Saturday afternoon at 2:30.
Rich Meijer leads the Brothers Band Together ensemble of rockers into The Public House in Quechee on Friday night at 7.
Chris Kleeman and his band sing and play the blues on Friday night at 9 at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners.
The rock quartet Tirade plays Salt hill Pub in downtown Lebanon on Friday night at 9.
Acoustic Truffle performs Caribbean-infused rock, blues and soul at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon on Friday night at 9.
The Conniption Fits rock Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Friday night at 9. The next night at 8, Soulfix saxophonist Michael Parker and chanteuse Alison “AliT” Turner play the venue.
Singer-songwriter Ben Fuller plays his mix of country and acoustic rock at Salt hill Pub in Newport on Friday night at 9.
Open Mics
The ever-in-motion Jim Yeager kicks off a full week of open mics tonight at 7, with an all-comers session at the ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret. Next he hosts the weekly open-mics on Monday night at 8 at Bentley’s in Woodstock, at The Public House in Quechee on Tuesday night at 6 and at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners at 8 on Wednesday night.
Ramunto’s Brick & Brew Pizza in Bridgewater hosts an open mic at 7:30 on Thursday nights. Participants get a free large cheese pizza.
String players of all ages and abilities are welcome at the weekly acoustic jam session at South Royalton’s BALE Commons on Friday night from 6:30 to 10.
The Sunapee Community CoffeeHouse hosts its monthly open-mic night on Friday night at 7, in the basement of the Methodist Church in Sunapee Harbor. While admission is free, donations are welcome. To learn more about this season’s series, visit sunapeecoffeehouse.org.
Joe Stallsmith leads a weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass at Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Monday nights at 6.
Bradford’s Colatina Exit holds an open mic, Tuesday nights at 8.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.