Shawn Colvin was the guest on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show yesterday, stopping by the WAMU studio in Washington, DC, to discuss her new album, All Fall Down, released this week on Nonesuch Records, and her memoir, Diamond in the Rough, also published this week, by William Morrow / HarperCollins. On the show, Colvin talks to Rehm about her songwriting career, plays a few songs, and shares the stories behind them, not least her evolution from performer to a songwriter in her own right.

"I wanted to be a songwriter, but just terrified to do it, thought I didn't have what it took so I didn't try ... I couldn't envision it without being the whole package, without being the singer, the guitar player and the songwriter. I just couldn't sign off on that," Colvin says of her early career. "So I kept working on the songwriting and then I finally figured it out. I figured out my voice, my talent, things I wanted to say and, you know, I figured it out."

Hear the complete conversation and performance at thedianerehmshow.org.

There's more great music ahead as Colvin will give a free concert at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, broadcast live from NPR member station WXPN, 88.5 FM, today at noon. Fans around the world can tune in live on XPN.org. The full performance will be archived on NPR.org/Music.

Next week, fans in Los Angeles can hear Shawn Colvin read from her book and perform songs from the album in person at the Barnes & Noble at The Grove at the Farmers Market Monday evening, before she gives a concert at the El Rey Theatre on Tuesday with Buddy Miller, the producer of All Fall Down, and bassist Viktor Krauss, who performs on the album. For additional tour information, go to nonesuch.com/on-tour.

To pick up a copy of All Fall Down and Diamond in the Rough, head to the Nonesuch Store, where CD orders include instant downloads of the album at checkout; the album is also available to purchase there as MP3s and FLAC lossless files.