>From this week's e-pulse:
>6. (LATE-SUMMER) COMEBACK OF THE WEEK:
>
>A decade ago, SHELBY LYNNE was just another misfit in Nashville, a very
>promising but not easily categorized young performer who was signed to a
>major label (Sony) intent on developing her talents within the constraints
>of the Nashville system. After washing out there, she signed with a sad
>excuse for a record company called Morgan Creek and released a fine (and
>ahead of its time) swing album in 1993; that label went belly-up before
>anything happened. Then she went underground -- or, to be more precise,
>back home to Alabama. Cut to the present: She's back. Lynne, who in her
>absence has watched her little sister Allison Moorer become a rising star
>in Nashville, has resurfaced with a label deal and a new record, produced
>by Bill Bottrell (Sheryl Crow). 'THIS IS SHELBY LYNNE' (Mercury/Island,
>8/3) won't be out for a while, but that's a good thing; it'll buy Island
>some time to set it up properly with the press and radio.
> Which shouldn't be any kind of problem -- 'This Is ' is the kind of
>knockout punch that makes its newly won fans fall over themselves in their
>evangelical zeal to get the word out to others. It's that good. The
>36-minute, 10-cut disc kicks off with "Your Lies," a stunning, big
>Southern-pop ballad in the tradition of Billy Joe Royal's "I Knew You
>When." As soon as that song's fade slides into "Leavin'," which sounds
>like 'Ingenue'-era k.d. lang fused with the Gladys Knight of "Midnight
>Train to Georgia," you realize that what you're listening to is no
>ordinary album. Next up is the disc's most overtly rock tune, the
>slide-guitar-driven "Life Is Bad," which may be more in line with Bottrell
>and Crow's 'Tuesday Night Music Club' album. But things kick back into a
>fluid soulful groove with "Easier," an updated take on Memphis and Muscle
>Shoals that betrays Lynne's debt to the likes of Aretha Franklin and Dusty
>Springfield. (No wonder the Nashville brain trust couldn't figure out what
>to do with her.) "Gotta Get Back" and "Why Can't You Be," which follow,
>expand the album's country-soul feel; by this time, you know Lynne's spent
>some time woodshed-ing with a decent-sized stack of Dusty Springfield
>sides. Similarly, acoustic numbers like "Lookin' Up" and "Dream Some" add
>an introspective slant nicked from '70s hybridized folk chanteuses like
>Joni Mitchell and Phoebe Snow. But the next tune, "Where I'm From"
>reasserts the album's churchy country-soul vibe with a blast of Alabama
>attitude. And the closer, "Black Light Blue," is a string-caressed torch
>number that lies down nicely next to the retro-countrypolitan stylings of
>k.d. lang's 'Shadowland.'
> It's an eclectic mix, but from start to finish the album's song
>sequence flows naturally; it's stitched together in a manner that recalls
>Marvin Gaye's landmark soul album, 'What's Going On.' Everything fits like
>a well-worn pair of favorite shoes, and the retro-familiarity of the music
>also acts to draw the listener in. Which acts somewhat as a palliative, as
>these songs' thematic embrace of loss and acceptance need some sort of
>sweet counterbalance to the expression here of some of life's bitter
>vicissitudes. But the hard-won battles of life often make for great art,
>and 'This Is Shelby Lynne' is the kind of record that often catapults a
>heretofore-obscure artist into the heady realm inhabited by superstars. On
>the basis of this thoroughly wonderful disc, if it happens to Lynne, it
>really shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone. (Griffith)
"Time begins on Opening Day" -Thomas Boswell
