I Am Shelby Lynne

Shelby Lynne
Label: Island / Mercury
Number of Discs: 1
Format: Audio CD
Release date:25th January 2000

Studio ^{Audio CD}	$3.32

Studio ^{Audio CD}

Track Listing

1. Your Lies
2. Leavin'
3. Life Is Bad
4. Thought It Would Be Easier
5. Gotta Get Back
6. Why Can't You Be?
7. Lookin' Up
8. Dream Some
9. Where I'm From
10. Black Light Blue

Amazon.com's Best of 2000

The boldly named I Am Shelby Lynne may serve as an introduction to a gifted vocalist for most, but the one-time Nashville phenom has more than a decade of recording experience under her belt. Still, in many ways this is an introduction to a new talent. This time out, the Alabama-reared singer-songwriter refused to live up to anyone's expectations but her own, expertly melding soul, rock, pop, and country strains into an eye-opening set that demands to be addressed on its own terms. --Steven Stolder

Amazon.com

Shelby Lynne is an anachronism in the best sense of the word. Alabama-born, this twentysomething singer is in love with classic pop and soul, the kind sung by Dusty in Memphis and Aretha in Muscle Shoals. Working here with producer Bill Bottrell, Lynne has fashioned a remarkable album of orchestral epics ("Your Lies"), lazy-afternoon dance music ("Thought It Would Be Easier"), and gorgeous, bluesy ballads ("Lookin' Up," "Black Light Blue"). Most of the album's 10 songs are firmly rooted in the '60s and '70s, but Bottrell's production and Lynne's still-wet-from-sex voice guarantee that the album sounds time-capsule fresh instead of past-expiration-date retro. While Lynne has made fine albums before--1993's big-band and Western-swing CD Temptation is particularly good--I Am Shelby Lynne is the best work yet by a singer as stubbornly committed to musical tradition, and as defiantly out of step with country music trends, as another former Nashville maverick, Lyle Lovett. --Keith Moerer