Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle Ready "Colvin & Earle" Release

Acclaimed GRAMMY Award-winning artists Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle have released the second song from their self titled, collaborative debut COLVIN & EARLE (Fantasy). Titled “Happy & Free,” the song is what impressed Colvin about Earle when they first met ; his ability to make the simple profound. Relix premiered the song earlier in the week. COLVIN & EARLE arrives everywhere on June 10th.

Colvin & Earle will celebrate the album’s release with a worldwide tour that kicks off June 10th at New York’s famed City Winery and continues through the summer and fall. Highlights include a two-night stand at London’s historic Union Chapel, Islington (June 13th and 15th) and an eagerly awaited performance at Bruce Hornsby’s inaugural Funhouse Festival, taking place June 25th on the Lawn of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.

Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle first met nearly three decades ago as Colvin opened a solo acoustic performance by Earle at Northampton, MA’s beloved Iron Horse. The two proved fast friends, collaborating occasionally over the years until finally teaming up for 2014’s “Songs and Stories, Together Onstage” tour, a sold-out run that saw the duo uniting for one-of-a-kind evenings of song-swapping, duets and storytelling. The Albany Times Union hailed the show as “a near perfect pairing,” while The Morning Call praised Colvin & Earle for “(spurring) each other to greater heights.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer summed it up best, declaring it “a joy to be able to witness two of the greatest at their craft.”


The shows were so exceptional Earle immediately proposed he and Colvin record an entire album together in the spirit of the tour. Their all-star backing band included guitarist Richard Bennett (Neil Diamond, Mark Knopfler, and Earle’s seminal 1986 debut, GUITAR TOWN), drummer Fred Eltringham (Willie Nelson, Kacey Musgraves), and bassist Chris Wood (of Medeski Martin & Wood) along with GRAMMY Award-winner Buddy Miller (Patty Griffin, Robert Plant, Lucinda Williams) at the helm as producer and baritone guitarist. Colvin, Earle and Miller led the combo through a week-and-a-half-long session that possesses all the spontaneity and magic of the duo’s live acoustic shows while also fleshing out the arrangements with alternating moments of subtle grace and raucous grit.

Fueled by deep emotional connection and spiritual bond, COLVIN & EARLE captures the once-in-a-lifetime magic of two extraordinary artists so in tune that they seem to be able to read each other’s minds. It would have been impossible to predict at the Iron Horse all those years ago, but Colvin & Earle have gone from sharing a stage to sharing one of the finest records in either of their storied careers.