Colvin Debuts New Songs With Lovett, Hornsby

March 16, 2001 -- AUSTIN, Texas — With some help from famous friends Bruce Hornsby, Lyle Lovett, and Alison Krauss, singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin debuted songs from her upcoming album, Whole New You, at a taping of Austin City Limits on Thursday night.

Dressed in jeans, a black T-shirt with the words "naughty girl" stenciled across it, and "the highest heels I've ever worn," Colvin performed 17 songs over the course of two hours for a show that will be edited down to a single hour and broadcast on PBS stations nationwide on April 21.

It will also be aired as a Columbia Records Radio Hour in select markets, though the air date was not announced.

Whole New You is the follow-up to A Few Small Repairs, Colvin's double-Grammy-winning album of 1996. The new disc deals with topics such as marriage and motherhood, both of which Colvin has experienced in the past few years.

"We're serious, we're very serious. We don't really know what we're doing," Colvin joked, noting that this was the first time her new songs were being played in public. "But we're doing all right so far," she added.

The new songs in her set included "Matter of Minutes," "Roger Wilco," "Nothing Like You," and "Bonefields."

She introduced the title track, a song about renewal, by saying, "I was coming out of my postpartum depression, which lasted two years."

Colvin also called on her guests to sing some of their own songs, as well as join in on hers. Krauss performed "Maybe" and Colvin's "Shotgun Down the Avalanche." Lovett supplied "The Road to Ensenada," which also featured Hornsby on accordion. Hornsby's contributions included his "Great Divide." The entire cast returned for Colvin's "Diamond in the Rough."

The new album, produced and co-written by Colvin's guitarist John Leventhal, is due March 27.