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
