Women in their element

It’s always fascinating to listen to artists finding their true pace and metier. In the case of recent Manila visitor Marie Digby, it’s stretching beyond her YouTube fame, and showing her compositional skills can take, and be enhanced by, orchestral-type arrangements. With acoustic pioneer Shawn Colvin, it’s going back to basics, with a live set that shows the breadth and depth of her career, and how a woman and guitar can “take care of business.”

Breathing Underwater - Marie Digby (MCA Universal) Had the chance to interview Marie when she was in town; and for someone who struck gold by doing acoustic covers of Top 40 hits and uploading them on YouTube, it was refreshing to hear how her new CD has a very layered, textured approach, part of her maturing as a songwriter and arranger. Avalanche is the first single, and in a good way, it actually reminds me of Wilson Phillips, with all the vocal overlays and orchestral arrangements. The song Know You By Heart, is the upbeat tune, Marie’s self-confessed “tapping my inner Kylie.” At a time when most artists just rehash their initial success, CD after CD, it’s good to know Marie is really experimenting with her “sonic space tempo” and coming up trumps! She considers Joni Mitchell, Madonna and Tori Amos among the artists she admires, and with such an eclectic bunch, it’s interesting to see where Marie takes her music. For now, Breathing Underwater is an excellent, indicative, set of songs. Serious and articulate, Marie showed us beauty doesn’t have to be just skin deep.

Live - Shawn Colvin (Nonesuch/Warner Music) A woman alone on a stage, with just a guitar, can be a formidable scenario to face, but listen as Shawn Colvin makes the whole auditorium her private living room and charms the audience with her music. Sunny Came Home, Fill Me up and Polaroids are among my favorite self-penned Colvin tunes and they’re all here. Her early CD, Cover Girl, showed just how adept she was at making songs by other composers her very own; and on this Live set, it’s Crazy of Gnarls Barkley and Talking Heads’ This Must Be the Place that stand out. The thing with Shawn has always been how she makes every song seem so personal and heartfelt, while her country music influences do rear their head, the music remains accessible and skillful. It’s great to have an album like this, summing up just what we first loved about Shawn Colvin.