Playing for the Fun of It

After Chasing Dreams Early On, Shawn Colvin Is Simply Happy to Take the Stage

Shawn Colvin, singer-songwriter, mother, fan of odd guitar tunings, is exactly what you would expect after listening to her music. Chilled-out without sounding tired. Introspective without sounding fake. At peace without sounding like she knows it all. She sounds remarkably like the friend that fans through the years have found in her music.

With a 10-year-old daughter, Colvin finds that her tour dates revolve around the school year. "I like having a time of year when I'm grounded more at home, taking care of her," said Colvin, who is divorced. She is far less pleased, however, to be taking care of her daughter's pet turtle, and when she called from her Texas home recently, that was what she was doing. "It's hard to have a turtle!" she said and then rattled off all the items you need to care for a hard-shelled reptile. "Heating lamp . . . daylight lamp. . . . My daughter wanted the turtle but [taking care of it] falls to me and my assistant," she said.

Clearly Colvin's priorities have changed from when she began her career more than two decades ago. But she has no regrets. Her career, she said, has had a nice trajectory, including a Top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Sunny Came Home" in 1997, three Grammys and a tune, "Never Saw Blue Like That," showcased in the 1999 movie "Runaway Bride."

Now 52 and playing the Birchmere on Monday, Colvin has been able to ride the tides of an ever-changing pop music scene. Although, to fans, her music has remained constant through the years (pretty, heartfelt tunes from a serious guitar player), to Colvin, her art form has meant different things at different times. It was once her "lifeline" growing up in Illinois. Later, in New York, it became her dream. But these days? These days it's just fun.

Colvin picked up the guitar when she was 10 to escape from her "provincial '50s family," she said. She was a creative, anxious, depressed kid who rebelled against her parents, experimenting with boys, marijuana and alcohol. ("Tuff Kid" off her 2006 album, "These Four Walls," reflects elements of her upbringing.) "My parents really did the best they could," Colvin said. "I was just a wild child. I just wanted out of the house at a very young age."

Her formal guitar training came in the form of lessons with a college student who taught her Joni Mitchell's alternate guitar tunings. "I was crazy about Joni," Colvin said. She was also so desperate to leave home she graduated from high school a year early. By the 1980s, Colvin was playing in New York, a part of the Village folk scene. She also turned to alcohol and struggled with depression. Music, for her then, was a "dramatic escape mechanism."

But unlike the stereotypical alcoholic artist, whose craft is fed by his addiction, Colvin kicked her habit at age 27, mostly out of pride, she said. She didn't like the idea of people thinking, " 'What the hell happened to her?' . . . I got my priorities more in order," she said.

She began writing music and getting serious. She was 33 when "Steady On" was released, and she won her first Grammy for best contemporary folk album.

"In my 20s I basically grew up," she said. In her 30s music became about realizing her dream.

Looking back on her archive of music, Colvin still likes all nine of her albums -- even the ones from the early days. That said, she said that songs such as "Object of My Affection" off 1992's "Fat City" reflect a sentiment of a younger woman. "I don't dislike it; I just don't feel in the song anymore," she said.

Her goal now, she says "is to write good songs that I stand behind and that I enjoy playing because the bulk of what I do is go out and perform." Such fun also includes playing with some of her favorite musicians, and she recently toured with Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller. She likes collaborating. "I've been a soloist so long, it was getting sort of lonely," she said. But then Colvin revealed something else about herself: her insecurity. Sometimes, she said, she thinks, " 'Ah, [those musicians] don't need me.' "

Shawn Colvin, master guitar player, prolific songwriter, beautiful lyricist, is uncertain about her abilities? "Well, you know, we're all insecure," she said. Add that to the list of Colvin's attributes: humility.

"I still feel very fortunate," she said. "I am still out there selling tickets."

Shawn Colvin Appearing Monday at the Birchmere (3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria). Show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets:$45, 703-549-7500 or http://www.birchmere.com. The Download: For a sampling of Shawn Colvin's music, check out: From "These Four Walls":· "Fill Me Up" · "The Bird" From "Whole New You":· "Matter of Minutes" · "Anywhere You Go" From "Fat City":· "Tenderness on the Block" · "Round of Blues"