The frankness in Colvin’s work has always been tempered by humor and sensuality and a gift for finding strong, simple melodies. She’s not one to directly take on social or political issues in her lyrics, but she’s bracingly honest about her own travails (and triumphs) and that resonates with her listeners. As she explains, ‘This is how I write. I don’t know how to make something personal and evocative that is a protest, a complaint or finger-pointing’unless it’s to a bad guy in a personal relationship.’ Given Colvin’s approach to her music, it’s no surprise then that she agreed to take on the even more daunting’and revealing’task of writing a memoir. Before embarking on All Fall Down, she’d devoted much of her creative energy over the last few years to Diamond in the Rough (William Morrow/Harper Collins), an account of her life and work to date that is as forthright and fascinating as any of her songs. In her prose, she’s blunt about the emotional demons she’s faced over the years and generous in equal measure with insights into her songwriting and record-making, uncovering the creative roots of such songs as the 1998 Song of the Year and Record of the Year, Grammy Award’winning ‘Sunny Came Home.’ Colvin is an openhearted storyteller who is certain to engage a readership well beyond her fan base. (She provides a vivid description of, among other things, the crumbling East Village tenement she first called home.) The publication of her memoir coincides with the release of All Fall Down.