Fat City (Shawn Colvin album)

Fat City
Studio album by Shawn Colvin
Released	October 27, 1992
Recorded	Larry Klein's House
Length	55:34
Label	Columbia
Producer	Larry Klein John Leventhal Shawn Colvin Kenny White David Kahne
Shawn Colvin chronology
Steady On (1989) Fat City (1992) Cover Girl (1994)

Fat City is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin. It was released on October 27, 1992, on Columbia Records.

Fat City peaked at number 142 on the Billboard 200 and at number 2 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart.[1] "Round of Blues" and "I Don't Know Why" charted on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks and Adult Contemporary single charts, respectively.[2] "Tenderness on the Block" is a cover version of a song released on Warren Zevon's 1978 album Excitable Boy. Opening track "Polaroids" provided the title of her greatest hits album Polaroids: A Greatest Hits Collection, which was released in 2004.

Songwriting

In an interview with Performing Songwriter magazine, Colvin described how she co-wrote songs for Fat City:[3]

The way that I generally co-write is that someone else writes the music or part of the music. Like on "Round of Blues" I wrote the whole song but Larry Klein said that it needed a bridge. So he wrote the bridge and I wrote the words to it. But Elly [Brown] and I really shared every part of ["Set the Prairie on Fire"] equally. She wrote some of the words, I wrote some of the words, she wrote some of the music, I wrote some of the music.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Chicago Tribune	[5]
Q	[6]
Rolling Stone	[7]
The Village Voice	C[8]

In Rolling Stone, Stacey D'Erasmo described Fat City as "a fatter, happier record" than Colvin's 1989 debut Steady On and commended "her ability to convey the ambivalent wonder of meeting happiness as if for the first time."[7]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Polaroids"	Shawn Colvin	5:53
2.	"Tennessee"	Colvin John Leventhal	4:21
3.	"Tenderness on the Block"	Jackson Browne Warren Zevon	5:05
4.	"Round of Blues"	Colvin Larry Klein	4:47
5.	"Monopoly"	Colvin	4:25
6.	"Orion in the Sky"	Colvin Klein	6:38
7.	"Climb On (A Back That's Strong)"	Colvin Leventhal	4:16
8.	"Set the Prairie on Fire"	Colvin Elly Brown	7:01
9.	"Object of My Affection"	Colvin Leventhal	3:53
10.	"Kill the Messenger"	Colvin	4:36
11.	"I Don't Know Why"	Colvin	4:37

Personnel

• Shawn Colvin – guitar, vocals
• Bruce Hornsby – piano, background vocals
• David Lindley – Hawaiian guitar, bazouki, lap steel Guitar
• Joni Mitchell – percussion
• The Subdudes – vocals
• Richard Thompson – guitar
• Chris Whitley – National Steel guitar (8)
• Tommy Malone – guitar, background vocals
• Valerie Carter – background vocals
• Jim Keltner – drums
• Alex Acuña – percussion
• Steve Amedee – drums, background vocals
• Robin Batteau – background vocals
• Larry Campbell – fiddle, pedal steel
• Mary Chapin Carpenter – background vocals
• Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
• Denny Fongheiser – drums
• Béla Fleck – banjo
• Milt Grayson – background vocals
• Richie Hayward – drum brushes
• Curtis King – background vocals
• Larry Klein – bass, percussion, guitar, keyboards, drum programming
• Greg Leisz – pedal steel
• John Leventhal – guitar, bass, percussion
• John Magnie – accordion, background vocals
• Bill Payne – organ
• Jeff Pevar – guitar
• Steuart Smith – guitar
• Fonzi Thornton – background vocals
• Ken White – keyboards, background vocals
• Vinnie Zummo – guitar
• Johnny Ray Allen – bass
• Booker T. Jones – Hammond organ

References

1. Billboard album milestones from Allmusic
2. Billboard singles milestones from Allmusic
3. Born to be Telling her Story, from Performing Songwriter magazine via taxi.com, an A&R company
4. Woodstra, Chris. "Fat City – Shawn Colvin". AllMusic. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
5. Kening, Dan (November 12, 1992). "Shawn Colvin: Fat City (Columbia)". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
6. Cooper, Mark (May 1993). "Shawn Colvin: Fat City". Q. No. 80. p. 89.
7. D'Erasmo, Stacey (January 7, 1993). "Shawn Colvin: Fat City". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on July 9, 2008. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
8. Christgau, Robert (December 1, 1992). "Turkey Shoot". The Village Voice. Retrieved July 16, 2024.