All Fall Down

A GRAMMY Award®–winning artist whose intricate songwriting has also earned her the support of her fellow musicians, Shawn Colvin performs at a very high level, where the placement of a single word can alter a song's perspective. For her first studio album in six years, she's teamed up with her old friend Buddy Miller, who's become a Nashville powerhouse, at his home studio. Eight of the 11 tracks were either written or cowritten by Colvin. Friends like Emmylou Harris, Jakob Dylan, and Alison Krauss add to the all-star team quality, but it's Bill Frisell's haunting guitar work that adds a consistent edge to these carefully sculpted tunes. "Seven Times the Charm," cowritten with Dylan and Colvin's longtime producer and collaborator John Leventhal, ends with the jarring verse "You had none of the kindness and all of the harm and seven times the charm." Considering the album was written as she was finishing up her memoir, Diamonds in the Rough, the personal quality of the tunes is surely no accident. "The Neon Light of the Saints" was written for and performed on the New Orleans–centered HBO series Treme